18. And Zacharias said unto the messenger, `Whereby shall I know this? for I am aged, and my wife is advanced in her days?'
19. And the messenger answering said to him, `I am Gabriel, who have been standing near before God, and I was sent to speak unto thee, and to proclaim these good news to thee,
20. and lo, thou shalt be silent, and not able to speak, till the day that these things shall come to pass, because thou didst not believe my words, that shall be fulfilled in their season.'
21. And the people were waiting for Zacharias, and wondering at his tarrying in the sanctuary,
22. and having come out, he was not able to speak to them, and they perceived that a vision he had seen in the sanctuary, and he was beckoning to them, and did remain dumb.
23. And it came to pass, when the days of his service were fulfilled, he went away to his house,
24. and after those days, his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying--
25. `Thus hath the Lord done to me, in days in which He looked upon [me], to take away my reproach among men.'
26. And in the sixth month was the messenger Gabriel sent by God, to a city of Galilee, the name of which [is] Nazareth,
27. to a virgin, betrothed to a man, whose name [is] Joseph, of the house of David, and the name of the virgin [is] Mary.