'Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.' ¹¹Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. ¹²From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force. ¹³For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; ¹⁴and if you are willing to accept it, he is Eli'jah who is to come. ¹⁵He who has ears to hear, let him hear. ¹⁶"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ¹⁷'We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.'
¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; ¹⁹the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds." ²⁰Then he began to upbraid the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. ²¹"Woe to you, Chora'zin! woe to you, Beth-sa'ida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.