³ A voice is crying -- in a wilderness -- Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, Make straight in a desert a highway to our God.

² As it hath been written in the prophets, `Lo, I send My messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee,' --

³ `A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight make ye his paths,' --

⁴ John came baptizing in the wilderness, and proclaiming a baptism of reformation -- to remission of sins,

⁵ and there were going forth to him all the region of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and they were all baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

²³ He said, `I `am' a voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.'

¹⁶ and many of the sons of Israel he shall turn to the Lord their God,

¹⁷ and he shall go before Him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn hearts of fathers unto children, and disobedient ones to the wisdom of righteous ones, to make ready for the Lord, a people prepared.'

¹ Lo, I am sending My messenger, And he hath prepared a way before Me, And suddenly come in unto his temple Doth the Lord whom ye are seeking, Even the messenger of the covenant, Whom ye are desiring, Lo, he is coming, said Jehovah of Hosts.

¹ And in those days cometh John the Baptist, proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea,

² and saying, `Reform, for come nigh hath the reign of the heavens,'

³ for this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, `A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight make ye His paths.'

⁵ Lo, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful.

⁶ And he hath turned back the heart of fathers to sons, And the heart of sons to their fathers, Before I come and have utterly smitten the land!

¹⁴ And he hath said, `Raise up, raise up, prepare a way, Lift a stumbling-block out of the way of My people.'

⁷⁶ And thou, child, Prophet of the Highest Shalt thou be called; For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, To prepare His ways.

⁷⁷ To give knowledge of salvation to His people In remission of their sins,

¹⁹ Lo, I am doing a new thing, now it springeth up, Do ye not know it? Yea, I put in a wilderness a way, In a desolate place -- floods.

² Annas and Caiaphas being chief priests -- there came a word of God unto John the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness,

³ and he came to all the region round the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of reformation -- to remission of sins,

⁴ as it hath been written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, `A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight make ye His paths;

⁵ every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straightness, and the rough become smooth ways;

⁶ and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'

¹⁰ Pass ye on, pass on through the gates, Prepare ye the way of the people, Raise up, raise up the highway, clear it from stones, Lift up an ensign over the peoples.

¹¹ Lo, Jehovah hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth: `Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Lo, thy salvation hath come,' Lo, his hire `is' with him, and his wage before him.

⁸ And a highway hath been there, and a way, And the `way of holiness' is called to it, Not pass over it doth the unclean, And He Himself `is' by them, Whoso is going in the way -- even fools err not.

⁴ Sing ye to God -- praise His name, Raise up a highway for Him who is riding in deserts, In Jah `is' His name, and exult before Him.

¹⁵ And Jehovah hath devoted to destruction The tongue of the sea of Egypt, And hath waved His hand over the river, In the terror of his wind, And hath smitten it at the seven streams, And hath caused `men' to tread `it' with shoes.

¹⁶ And there hath been a highway, For the remnant of His people that is left, from Asshur, As there was for Israel in the day of his coming up out of the land of Egypt!

¹¹ And I have made all My mountains for a way, And My highways are lifted up.