This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger before You, who will prepare Your way before You.’
A voice cries out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of Adonai, Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
“Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. Suddenly He will come to His Temple —the Lord whom you seek— and the Messenger of the covenant —the One whom you desire— behold, He is coming,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
As Isaiah the prophet has written, “Behold, I send My messenger before You, who will prepare Your way.
And you, child, will be called a prophet of Elyon. For you will go before Adonai to prepare His ways,
Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, even more than a prophet.
I say to you, there is no one greater than John among those born of women; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
He said, “I am ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of Adonai,”’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”