Isaiah 40:3-5

3-5. The voice of him that crieth Rather, A voice crieth, though the Septuagint and the Vulgate translate as in our version. It is rhetorically suitable to read, “Hark! a crier.” So Delitzsch. Who is the crier is not given; nor is it important. More important is what follows.

In the wilderness Not unlikely the allusion here is, as if to a voice across the desert five hundred miles from Babylon toward Jerusalem. The scene is dramatic: Jehovah heads a column of exiles returning to Zion, as he did of old when, across from Egypt to Canaan, he conducted Israel. Both are sub-type and type of John the Baptist heralding the great coming One at a stage which completed the then pending preparatory dispensation.

Prepare ye the way The meaning, spiritually applied, is clear. “Prepare the roadway (of a custom immemorially far back is this an oriental picture) for the coming retinue of redeemed believers; remove rocks, level up gorges, excavate hills, and straighten crooked courses; Jehovah’s glory of victorious leading shall be seen by all.” Of this the last of Isaiah 40:5 is the solemn voucher. For reference of this scene to John the Baptist, see Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:1, and Luke 3:4-6. See also remarks at pages 169, 170, showing Isaiah’s authorship of this chapter.