Matthew 3:3

Matthew 3:3. For. He thus preached, because he was sent to fulfil this prophecy.

Is he. All the Evangelists and John himself thus apply the prophecy, which is more than a typical one. Even if the primary reference was to a return from captivity, the entire fulfilment was in the mission of the Baptist. Isaiah, Isaiah 40:3. Here, as in Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4, the Evangelist quotes; in John 1:23, the Baptist applies the prophecy to himself.

The voice. From the Septuagint. Literally ‘a voice.' Some suppose John is represented as a ‘voice,' in contrast with Christ as ‘the Word,' others because his life was vocal,' the whole man being as it were a sermon,' perhaps with reference to the long silence since the prophet Malachi.

In the wilderness is connected, in the Hebrew, with ‘prepare,' here with ‘crying.' The sense remains the same. ‘The wilderness' here (and probably in the original prophecy) refers to the spiritually desolate condition of God's people.

The way of the Lord, i.e., Jehovah. By implication the coming One was Jehovah. An allusion to the Eastern custom of removing obstacles before the approach of a royal personage. Hence the prophecy did not primarily refer to the return of the Jews from captivity, when no King was present.