< Matthew 3 >
1 While [Jesus was still in Nazareth town], John, [whom the people called] the Baptizer, went to a desolate place in Judea [district].
තදානෝං යෝහ්න්නාමා මජ්ජයිතා යිහූදීයදේශස්ය ප්රාන්තරම් උපස්ථාය ප්රචාරයන් කථයාමාස,
2 He was preaching [to the people who came there]. He kept saying, “[You need to] turn away from your sinful behavior, because God [MET] will soon begin to rule [over people, and he will reject you if you do not turn away from your sinful life].”
මනාංසි පරාවර්ත්තයත, ස්වර්ගීයරාජත්වං සමීපමාගතම්|
3 John was the person who [fulfilled] what was said by Isaiah the prophet {what Isaiah the prophet [predicted] when he said}, long ago: In a desolate area ([people will hear someone/someone will be heard]) shouting [to the people who pass by], Prepare [yourselves to receive] the Lord when he comes! [Make yourselves ready so that you will be prepared when he comes] [MET, DOU], just like people [improve and] straighten out the road [for an important official!]
පරමේශස්ය පන්ථානං පරිෂ්කුරුත සර්ව්වතඃ| තස්ය රාජපථාංශ්චෛව සමීකුරුත සර්ව්වථා| ඉත්යේතත් ප්රාන්තරේ වාක්යං වදතඃ කස්යචිද් රවඃ||
4 John wore [coarse] clothing made from camel’s hair. And [as the prophet Elijah did long ago], he wore a leather belt around his waist. His food was [only] grasshoppers and honey [that he found] in that desolate area.
ඒතද්වචනං යිශයියභවිෂ්යද්වාදිනා යෝහනමුද්දිශ්ය භාෂිතම්| යෝහනෝ වසනං මහාඞ්ගරෝමජං තස්ය කටෞ චර්ම්මකටිබන්ධනං; ස ච ශූකකීටාන් මධු ච භුක්තවාන්|
5 [People who lived in] Jerusalem [city] [MTY], many [HYP] [people who lived in other places in] Judea [district] [MTY], and many [HYP] [people who lived in] the area around the Jordan [River] [MTY] came to John [to hear him preach].
තදානීං යිරූශාලම්නගරනිවාසිනඃ සර්ව්වේ යිහූදිදේශීයා යර්ද්දන්තටින්යා උභයතටස්ථාශ්ච මානවා බහිරාගත්ය තස්ය සමීපේ
6 After [they heard him tell them to turn away from their sinful behavior], they [openly] confessed their sins, and as a result they were baptized by John {John baptized them} in the Jordan River.
ස්වීයං ස්වීයං දුරිතම් අඞ්ගීකෘත්ය තස්යාං යර්ද්දනි තේන මජ්ජිතා බභූවුඃ|
7 After John noted that many men of the Pharisee [religious group] and of the Sadducee [religious group] were coming [to him] to be baptized {in order that he would baptize them}, he said to them, “You people are [evil like poisonous] snakes [MET]! I warn you that God will some day punish [MTY] everyone who sins. (And do not think that you can escape from his punishing you [MTY] [if you do not turn from your sinful behavior]!/Did someone tell you that you can escape from his punishing you [MTY] [if you do not turn from your sinful behavior]?) [RHQ]
අපරං බහූන් ඵිරූශිනඃ සිදූකිනශ්ච මනුජාන් මංක්තුං ස්වසමීපම් ආගච්ඡ්තෝ විලෝක්ය ස තාන් අභිදධෞ, රේ රේ භුජගවංශා ආගාමීනඃ කෝපාත් පලායිතුං යුෂ්මාන් කශ්චේතිතවාන්?
8 Do what is appropriate [IDM] for people who have truly turned away from their sinful behavior [before you come to me in order to be baptized] {[that I baptize you]}.
මනඃපරාවර්ත්තනස්ය සමුචිතං ඵලං ඵලත|
9 [God promised to give Abraham many descendants. In order to fulfill that promise], God [does not need you! I] tell you that he can change these stones to make them descendants of Abraham. So do not start to say to yourselves, ‘Since we are descendants of [our ancestor] Abraham, [God will not punish us even though we have sinned].’
කින්ත්වස්මාකං තාත ඉබ්රාහීම් අස්තීති ස්වේෂු මනඃසු චීන්තයන්තෝ මා ව්යාහරත| යතෝ යුෂ්මාන් අහං වදාමි, ඊශ්වර ඒතේභ්යඃ පාෂාණේභ්ය ඉබ්රාහීමඃ සන්තානාන් උත්පාදයිතුං ශක්නෝති|
10 [God is] ready [to punish you if you do not turn away from your sinful behavior, just like] a man who lays his axe at the roots of a [fruit] tree [in order to] chop it down and throw it into the fire if it does not produce good fruit [MET].”
අපරං පාදපානාං මූලේ කුඨාර ඉදානීමපි ලගන් ආස්තේ, තස්මාද් යස්මින් පාදපේ උත්තමං ඵලං න භවති, ස කෘත්තෝ මධ්යේ(අ)ග්නිං නික්ෂේප්ස්යතේ|
11 “As for me, I [am not very important, because] I baptize you [only] with water. I [baptize you] because of your feeling sorry that you have sinned. But someone else will come soon who is very great; [he will do powerful deeds] (OR, [act powerfully]). [Because he is] superior to me, I am not worthy [even to do a menial task for him, such as] to carry his sandals. He will put [his] Holy Spirit [within] you [to truly change] the way you live [MET], and [he will judge others of you and punish you in] the fire [in hell]. ()
අපරම් අහං මනඃපරාවර්ත්තනසූචකේන මජ්ජනේන යුෂ්මාන් මජ්ජයාමීති සත්යං, කින්තු මම පශ්චාද් ය ආගච්ඡති, ස මත්තෝපි මහාන්, අහං තදීයෝපානහෞ වෝඪුමපි නහි යෝග්යෝස්මි, ස යුෂ්මාන් වහ්නිරූපේ පවිත්ර ආත්මනි සංමජ්ජයිෂ්යති|
12 [He is like a farmer who wants to clear away the grain that is on the ground where it has been threshed] {[they have threshed it]}. [That farmer uses a] huge fork to throw the grain into the air [to separate the wheat from the chaff] [MET], and then he cleans up the threshing area. [Similarly], God will [separate righteous people from the evil people like a farmer who] gathers the wheat into his storage area, and then [God] will burn the [people who are like] chaff with a fire that will never be put out [MET].”
තස්ය කාරේ සූර්ප ආස්තේ, ස ස්වීයශස්යානි සම්යක් ප්රස්ඵෝට්ය නිජාන් සකලගෝධූමාන් සංගෘහ්ය භාණ්ඩාගාරේ ස්ථාපයිෂ්යති, කිංන්තු සර්ව්වාණි වුෂාණ්යනිර්ව්වාණවහ්නිනා දාහයිෂ්යති|
13 During that time, Jesus went from Galilee [District] to the Jordan [River], where John was. [He did that] in order to be baptized by John {in order to ask that John would baptize him}.
අනන්තරං යීශු ර්යෝහනා මජ්ජිතෝ භවිතුං ගාලීල්ප්රදේශාද් යර්ද්දනි තස්ය සමීපම් ආජගාම|
14 [When Jesus asked John to baptize him], John objected, saying, “I need to be baptized by you {you to baptize me} [because you are superior to me. Since you are not a sinner], ([you(sg)] should not come to me [to be baptized by me] {[to ask that I baptize you(sg)]}!/why do you come to me [to be baptized by me] {[ask that I baptize you(sg)]} [RHQ]?)”
කින්තු යෝහන් තං නිෂිධ්ය බභාෂේ, ත්වං කිං මම සමීපම් ආගච්ඡසි? වරං ත්වයා මජ්ජනං මම ප්රයෝජනම් ආස්තේ|
15 But Jesus said to him, “Baptize me at this time, because in this way we [two] will do [everything that God] requires.” Then John consented to baptize him.
තදානීං යීශුඃ ප්රත්යවෝචත්; ඊදානීම් අනුමන්යස්ව, යත ඉත්ථං සර්ව්වධර්ම්මසාධනම් අස්මාකං කර්ත්තව්යං, තතඃ සෝ(අ)න්වමන්යත|
16 After he was baptized {John baptized Jesus}, Jesus immediately came up out of the water. Just then, [it was as though] the sky was opened {split apart}. Then [Jesus] saw God’s Spirit coming down upon him. He came in the form of a dove.
අනන්තරං යීශුරම්මසි මජ්ජිතුඃ සන් තත්ක්ෂණාත් තෝයමධ්යාද් උත්ථාය ජගාම, තදා ජීමූතද්වාරේ මුක්තේ ජාතේ, ස ඊශ්වරස්යාත්මානං කපෝතවද් අවරුහ්ය ස්වෝපර්ය්යාගච්ඡන්තං වීක්ෂාඤ්චක්රේ|
17 Then [God] [SYN] spoke from heaven, saying, “This is my Son. I love him. I am very pleased with him.”
අපරම් ඒෂ මම ප්රියඃ පුත්ර ඒතස්මින්නේව මම මහාසන්තෝෂ ඒතාදෘශී ව්යෝමජා වාග් බභූව|