Luke 3:4

John was the one who fulfilled these words that had been written by the prophet Isaiah {that the prophet Isaiah had written} on a scroll long ago: In a desolate area, someone [SYN] 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, just like people straighten out the road [MET] for an important official [MET, DOU]!

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

In Context

3So John went all over the area close to the Jordan River. He kept telling people, “If you want God to forgive you for your sins, you must ◄repent/turn away from your sinful behavior► before you ask me to baptize you!”

5Just like people level off all the places where the land rises and just like they fill all the ravines, and just like people make the road straight wherever it is crooked, and just like people make smooth the bumps in the road, similarly you need to remove all the obstacles which prevent God from blessing you!

Read all of Luke 3

Cross References

Isaiah 57:14Yahweh will say, “Prepare yourselves to receive me, like [MET] people build and prepare a road for a king to come on. Get rid of the things that are causing you to sin like [MET] people remove from a road ◄obstacles/things that cause people to stumble►.

Malachi 4:6Because of what he preaches, parents and their children will love each other again [IDM]. If that does not happen, I will come and curse your country and destroy it.”

Mark 1:3He will call out to people who pass by where he is in the desolate area, “As people improve and straighten out pathways before an important official arrives [MET], make yourselves ready [DOU] in order that you will be prepared when the Lord comes.”

Luke 1:76Then Zechariah said this to his little son: “My child, you will be called {people will say that you are} a prophet whom God [MTY/EUP] has sent; you will begin your work before ◄the Lord/Messiah► comes; you will prepare people so that they will be ready for him. (OR, you will begin your work before the Messiah comes).

John 1:23John replied, “ I am the one the prophet Isaiah said would proclaim this new message loudly to the people who would pass by in this desolate area: ‘Prepare yourselves to receive the Lord when he comes [MET], just like people prepare a road for an important official.

John 3:28You yourselves can verify what I said. I told you that I am not ◄the Messiah/God’s promised king►. Instead, I told you that I was sent {that God sent me} to prepare the way for him.

Matthew Henry on Luke 3:2-15

Ministry of John the Baptist. 1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituræa and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. 3 And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; 4 As it is… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Luke 3:4