Isaiah 40:3-6

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

40:4 Every valley must be elevated,

and every mountain and hill leveled.

The rough terrain will become a level plain,

the rugged landscape a wide valley.

40:5 The splendor ¹  of the Lord will be revealed,

and all people ²  will see it at the same time.

For ³  the Lord has decreed it.” ⁴ 

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ⁵  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ⁶  “All people are like grass, ⁷ 

and all their promises ⁸  are like the flowers in the field.

Mark 1:7

1:7 He proclaimed, ⁹  “One more powerful than I am is coming after me; I am not worthy ¹⁰  to bend down and untie the strap ¹¹  of his sandals.

Luke 1:17

1:17 And he will go as forerunner before the Lord ¹²  in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, ¹³  to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”

[40:5]  ¹ tn Or “glory.” The Lord’s “glory” is his theophanic radiance and royal splendor (see Isa 6:3; 24:23; 35:2; 60:1; 66:18-19).

[40:5]  ² tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NAB, NIV “mankind”; TEV “the whole human race.”

[40:5]  ³ tn Or “indeed.”

[40:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ⁶ tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.

[1:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “proclaimed, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn The term refers to the leather strap or thong used to bind a sandal. This is often viewed as a collective singular and translated as a plural, “the straps of his sandals,” but it may be more emphatic to retain the singular here.

[1:17]  ¹² tn Grk “before him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ¹³ sn These two lines cover all relationships: Turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children points to horizontal relationships, while (turn) the disobedient to the wisdom of the just shows what God gives from above in a vertical manner.