1. In those days, John the Immerser came proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea,
2. “Turn away from your sins, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”
3. For he is the one Isaiah the prophet spoke about, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of Adonai, and make His paths straight.’”
4. Now John wore clothing from camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5. Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan.
6. Confessing their sins, they were being immersed by him in the Jordan River.
7. But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8. Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance;
9. and do not think that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’! For I tell you that from these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
10. Already the axe is laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!