Luke 3:4

Esaias the prophet Isaiah 40:3.

saying This word should be omitted with א, B, D, L, &c.

The voice Rather, A voice. The Hebrew original may be rendered "Hark one crieth."

of one crying in the wilderness Hence comes the common expression for hopeless warnings, vox clamantis in deserto. Probably, however, the "in the wilderness" should be attached to the words uttered by the voice, as is required by the parallelism of Hebrew poetry:

"Prepare ye in the wilderness a way for Jehovah,

Lay even in the desert a highway for our God."

The wilderness is metaphorically the barren waste of the Jewish life in that day (Isaiah 35:1).

the way of the Lord Comp. Isaiah 35:8-10, "And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it … And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion."