Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 40:3

3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness , Prepare ye the way of the LORD , make straight in the desert a high way for our God.

An abrupt and imperfect speech, such as there are many in the Hebrew Language. Methinks I hear a voice▪ Or, a voice shall be heard.

Which words declare the place either. 1. Where the cry was made: Or, 2. Where the way was to be prepared, as it is expressed in the following clause, which is added to explain this. And such places being commonly path-less, and many wayes incommodious to passengers, it was the more necessary to prepare a way there. But both come to one thing, for the cry was to be in that place which was to be prepared. This place seems to be understood immediately of the deliverance of the Iews out of Babylon, and of smoothing their passage from thence to Iudea, which lay through a great Wilderness; but ultimately and principally concerning their Redem[illegible: 1+ letters]on by the Messiah, whose coming is ushered in by the Cry [illegible: 1 word] the Baptist, who did both cry and prepare the way in the Wilderness, as we read, Mat. 3. 1, &c. Where this Text is directly expounded of him. But withal the terms of Wilderness and Desert, seem to be here chiefly used in a metaphorical sence, to express the desolate and forlorn condition of the Jewish Nation, and especially of the Gentile-world, when Christ came to redeem them▪ for so these words are frequently used in prophetical writings, as hath been noted in divers places.

You to whom this work belongs. He alludes to the custom of Princes who send Pioneers before them to prepare the way through which they intend to pass. The meaning is onely this, That God shall by his Spirit so dispose mens hearts, and by his providence so order the Empires and affairs of the World, as to make way for the accomplishment of this promise.

For the Lord as it is expounded in the next clause, that the Lord may wal[illegible: 1+ letters] in it: Which though it may be understood of their coming out of Babylon, when God might in some sort be said to march in the head of them, conducting and preserving them, yet it was much more evidently and eminently fulfilled, when Christ who was and is God blessed for ever, came into the World in a visible manner.

Either direct in opposition to crooked, or even and level in opposition to the Mountains and Valleys mentioned in the next verse.

Marginal references: Mal. 3. 1. Mat. 3. 3. Mark. 1. 3. Luke 3. 4. John 1. 23.