JMNT(i)
3 "A voice! One repeatedly crying out (shouting; exulting; exclaiming; imploring):
'Within the midst of the wilderness (desert; desolate place; abandoned and uninhabited region)
you folks at once prepare and make ready the road of [
the]
Lord (the path whose source is [Yahweh]; the Way whose character is that of, and which pertains to, [the] Owner [= Yahweh])!
Be progressively constructing (or: Make it a habit of making)
His highway (thoroughfare)
well-placed and straight.'" (or: "A sound! One is continuously crying out within the midst of the desert: ... ") [
Isa. 40:3]
4 John – the one habitually baptizing (immersing; dipping) –
came into the scene within the wilderness (or: came to be in the uninhabited area of the desert),
repeatedly heralding the proclamation of a baptism (an immersion)
which signifies, is connected to, and has the characteristics of a change of thinking [= recognition of being headed in the wrong direction] (a change of perception, frame of mind and mode of thought; a change of understanding; = a new attitude involving trust and obedience)
and a turning back [
to Yahweh, which leads]
into an abandoning of and divorcing from failures (a sending-away of errors; a letting-go of sins; a release from and a dismissal of mistakes; a letting-flow-away of situations where the target was missed).
5 And all the Judean territory (province; region; country) –
even all the people of Jerusalem – kept on traveling out to him in a steady stream, [
to be]
face to face with him, and were one by one being immersed (baptized)
by him within the midst of the Jordan River, while they were continuing in openly confessing-out and acknowledging their failures (mistakes; errors; sins; times of being out of line and falling short of the goal).