Therefore, if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.
¶A voice is calling, “Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
Behold, I have told you in advance.
For just as the lightning comes from the east and appears even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Now in those days John the Baptist *came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago raised a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”