Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 3:5
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways [shall be] made smooth;
5. Every valley, &c.] The metaphor is derived from pioneers who go before the march of a king. There is a remarkable parallel in Josephus ( B. J. iii. 6, 2), where he is describing the march of Vespasian, and says that among his vanguard were “such as were to make the road even and straight, and if it were anywhere rough and hard to be passed over, to plane it, and to cut down the woods that hindered their march (comp. prokoptein = ‘to advance’ in Luk 2:52), that the army might not be tired.” The Jews fabled that the Pillar of Cloud and Fire in the desert smoothed the mountains and filled the valleys before them. Tanchuma, f. 70, 3 on Num 20:22.
Every valley shall be filled, &c.] i. e. the humble and meek shall be exalted, and the mighty put down. Compare Isa 2:12-15, “The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. And upon all the high mountains, &c.” Zec 4:7, “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.”
the crooked shall be made straight ] The words in the original recall the names Jacob and Jeshurun; as though it were “then the Supplanter shall be turned into Prince with God” or “the beloved” (Isa 44:2; Isa 11:4). The general meaning of the prophecy is that no obstacles, whether they arose from depression, or power, or pride, or cunning perversity, or menacing difficulties, should be able to resist the labours of the Pioneers and Heralds of the Kingdom of God. The feeble instrumentality of Galilaeans should be strengthened; the power of the Romans and Herods should be shattered; the duplicity and plots of Pharisees and worldlings should be defeated; the apparently insuperable opposition of Judaism and Heathenism be swept away.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Luk 3:5
Every valley shall be filled
The Kings highway
I.
VALLEYS MUST DE LEVELLED UP.
1. Inattention.
2. Apathy.
3. Despondency.
II. EMINENCES MUST BE LEVELLED DOWN.
1. The mountain of pride must be reduced.
(1) The pride that will not make full confession of sin.
(2) The pride that will not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child.
(3) The pride of reason that will not accept salvation until its mysteries are comprehended.
(4) The pride of worldly professors.
2. The mountain of presumption must be depressed.
(1) Sinners are presumptuous when, without forsaking their sins, they attempt to believe for salvation.
(2) Professors arc presumptuous when they expect the work of
God to revive in the Church without exerting themselves to promote a revival.
(3) While we work as though everything depended upon working, we must trust as though everything depended upon trusting.
3. The hills of ingratitude must be brought low.
III. THE CROOKED PLACES MUST BE STRAIGHTENED.
1. Prejudice.
2. Jealousy.
3. Censoriousness.
4. Covetousness.
IV. THE ROUGH PLACES MUST BE SMOOTHED.
1. The ugly rock of Sabbath desecration must be removed.
2. That rut of drunkenness must be filled up.
3. Those sinks of immorality must be filled–lying, cheating, oppression, uncleanness.
4. The rough places of instability must be smoothed. (Prof. F. W. Macdonald, M. A.)
Preparing the way of the Lord
Before John, the wilderness preacher, the mountains of Pharisaic pride were levelled, the valleys of Sadducean unbelief were filled up, the tortuous vices of the courtly Judean were corrected, and the rude ignorance of the Galilean smoothed and reformed. (Canon Liddon.)
Road-makers
(To children.) In ancient times, especially in Eastern lands, when an emperor or king was travelling through his dominions, men were sent before them to prepare the way. Sometimes they had to make a new road through pathless wildernesses and rocky passes, hewing down trees, cutting a level way along steep or rugged hill-sides, clearing away rocks, and making embankments across valleys, and bridges over streams. Or sometimes the old road was overgrown with bushes and brambles, or washed away by floods, or covered with rubbish which the winter storms and swollen torrents had brought down from the mountains. In some Eastern lands, even at this day, travellers tell us how the roads are often so destroyed in the rainy season, that before a governor or high officer of state makes a journey, the highways must be mended and made ready for him to travel speedily and safely. So when the prophet Isaiah was speaking of the coming of the Lord Jesus, he foretold that some one would be sent by God to prepare the way, &c. Look at the Gospels and you will see that the messenger whom God sent to prepare the way for His beloved Son was John the Baptist. Now, how did John prepare the way? There were four things which he taught the people, in order to make ready their hearts for the Lord Jesus.
I. TO EXPECT HIM.
II. TO FEEL THEIR NEED OF HIM TO SAVE THEM FROM THEIR SINS.
III. TO REPENT OF ALL SIN.
IV. TO HEARKEN TO HIM, AND BELIEVE, LOVE, AND OBEY HIM WHEN HE CAME. NOW, if the Lord Jesus were coming to the place where you live, would you not be glad if you were invited to help to prepare the way for Him? Would you not think it a great honour and happiness to take one stone out of His way? Oh yes! Your heart would dance for joy, and perhaps your feet too. Who would not like to be a pioneer for Jesus, the King of kings? Well, but dont you know that He really wishes to come; not to pass along the streets, but to come into the homes and hearts of all the people, not to pay a visit, but to dwell there? Then what hinders His coming? Only that people arc not ready for Him. Do you know what God calls a heart that does not love and fear Him? He calls it a stony heart Eze 36:26). Well then, if you do not love and trust and try to obey the Lord Jesus as your own Saviour and King, dont you see that there is one stone to be taken out of His way? How? Just by coming to Him in prayer to make you truly His. (E. R. Conder, D. D.)
Valley and mountain
Every valley shall be filled; that the people might know what our Lord would do, to exalt the mercy of God to undone sinners, who, like valleys, lay very low under despondency of spirit; John bid them repent, which the law did not admit of. This word repent is a most sweet word, and tends to advance mercy and Gods free grace, and so to fill up those valleys, I mean despairing and desponding sinners. When God sends a messenger to rebels, and commands them to repent and believe, a sweet pardon be sure is comprehended therein; and this tends to fill up or exalt two valleys.
1. The lowly and desponding soul.
2. The mercy of God is exalted, which was one grand design of God in sending His Son to satisfy Divine justice; for mercy and Divine goodness could not be raised to run level with justice, until our Saviour had made a complete satisfaction for our sins.
I. But before I proceed, let it be considered (as I conceive) that the grand obstructions or obstacles which lie in the way of Gods being reconciled to sinners, and of sinners reconciliation unto Him, are comprehended by these metaphorical expressions.
1. The haughty Jews and Pharisees, who were swelled with pride; yea, like lifted up high mountains and hills; how did the Pharisee glory, God, I thank Thee I am not as other men, nor as this publican?
2. They were like mountains, in respect had to their legal privileges, being Gods covenant people, boasting They had Abraham to their father, and never were in bondage (Joh 8:33). John Baptist in his ministry strove to level these mountains, when he saw them coming to his baptism, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
3. The Jews and Pharisees might be compared to mountains and hills, in that they boasted they had the key of knowledge, and were the only teachers and masters of Israel, and that all besides themselves were ignorant and foolish persons. Do but read what holy Paul speaketh of them, to bring them down level with the ground.
II. Sin (as Mr. Caryl notes, speaking of this very text) may be also meant by these mountains.
III. By mountains here also may be meant, or refer unto those great oppositions our Lord Jesus met withal, in His working out our salvation.
1. From men.
2. From the devil. These stood in His way like mighty mountains, like as Sanballet stood as a mountain in the way of Zerubbabel (a type of Christ): And who art thou, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain (Zec 4:7).
IV. As valleys may refer to despairing sinners, so mountains and hills may refer to haughty and presumptuous sinners; I speak not here of self-righteous persons.
V. Valleys may refer to the low estate of mankind, or of Gods elect, as considered dead in the first Adam, or as under the law and curse thereof. (B. Keach.)
The crooked shall be made straight
1. Crooked may refer to mens crooked opinions; they speak not right of God; they do not judge according to the straight and equal glory of all the perfections of Gods holy nature; nor according to the straight rule of His holy law, but magnify the glory of His mercy, to the eclipsing the glory of His justice; and of this crooked opinion are the Socinians, and all that magnify the pardoning grace of God, without having respect to a plenary satisfaction, made to the justice and law of God by Jesus Christ.
2. Crooked things may refer to those false and crooked ways of worship which many walk in; ways which Christ never instituted or appointed: the Word of God is the only rule for worship, and administration of ordinances. Now all pretended ordinances and Divine worship, that doth not exactly agree with this rule, but vary in matter or manner from it, are crooked way.
3. Crooked may refer to the lives and conversations of men; the law of God (as it is in the hand of Jesus Christ) and the glorious gospel is the only rule of our lives; and all whose lives and conversations do not agree with that rule, are crooked ways.
4. Crooked may also refer unto mens crooked spirits; how cross and uneven are some mens hearts and spirits to the word and will of God. The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom 8:7). (B. Keach.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Every valley shall be filled] All hinderances shall be taken out of the way: a quotation from the Greek version of Isa 40:4, containing an allusion to the preparations made in rough countries to facilitate the march of mighty kings and conquerors. See the instance produced on Mt 3:3.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
5. Every valley, &c.levellingand smoothing, obvious figures, the sense of which is in thefirst words of the proclamation, “Prepare ye the way of theLord.“
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Every valley shall be filled,…. Luke cites more out of the same prophecy, as relating to the times of John the Baptist, and the Messiah, than the other Evangelists Matthew and Mark do: in the prophet it is, “every valley shall be exalted”; which is done, by filling it up; the metaphor is persisted in, of preparing and clearing the way, for the coming of the Messiah, done by the ministry of John; under which, such souls as were lowly and humble, and depressed with the sense of sin, should be raised and directed to believe in Christ, and be filled with divine consolation from him. These words are owned by the Jews o to belong to the world to come; that is, the times of the Messiah; though they understand them, of making way for the return of the Israelites from captivity, by the Messiah: just as they suppose such things were done by the miraculous cloud, for the children of Israel, as they passed through the wilderness; of which they say p,
“that it went before them, smote the serpents and scorpions, and fiery serpents, and the rock; and if there was any low place, it raised it up; or high place, it made it low, and caused them to be plain; as it is said,
Isa 40:3 “And every valley shall be exalted”, c.”
But what they say of this cloud literally, as preparing the way for the Israelites, is in a spiritual sense true, of the ministry of John whereby many of the children of Israel, had the way prepared for them, for the reception of the Messiah; when as every humble soul had its expectation raised, and its faith encouraged, and its heart filled with spiritual joy; so such as were proud and haughty, were humbled:
and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; all such as are elated with their own abilities, and boast of their righteousness, trust in themselves, and look with disdain and contempt on others, their loftiness shall be bowed down, and their haughtiness made low; and the Messiah alone, in his person, grace, and righteousness, be exalted:
and the crooked shall be made straight: such as are of a crooked spirit, and walk in crooked ways, with the workers of iniquity, shall have new spirits given them, and be directed to right ways, and be led in the paths of righteousness and truth:
and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and men of rough tempers, comparable to lions and bears, shall become quiet and peaceable, smooth and easy; and moreover, whatever difficulties were in the minds of men concerning the Messiah, the end of his coming, and the nature of his kingdom; and whatever impediments were in the way of embracing him when come, should now be removed at least from many persons: R. David Kimchi, a very noted Jewish commentator q, acknowledges that the whole of this passage is to be understood, , “by way of parable”, in a mystical and figurative sense.
o T. Hieros. Erubin, fol. 25. 2. p Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 1. fol. 177. 1, 2. Vid. Targ. in Cant. ii. 6. & Jarchi in Cant. iii. 6. q In Isa. xl. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Valley (). Here only in the N.T., though in the LXX and ancient Greek. It is a ravine or valley hedged in by precipices.
Shall be filled (). Future passive indicative of . In 1845 when the Sultan visited Brusa the inhabitants were called out to clear the roads of rocks and to fill up the hollows. Oriental monarchs often did this very thing. A royal courier would go ahead to issue the call. So the Messiah sends his herald (John) before him to prepare the way for him. Isaiah described the preparation for the Lord’s triumphal march and John used it with great force.
Hill (). Called a Cyrenaic word by Herodotus, but later Greek writers use it as does the LXX.
Brought low (). Future passive indicative of . Literal meaning here of a verb common in the metaphorical sense.
Crooked (). Common word, curved, opposite of or , straight.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Valley [] . Strictly, of a chasm or ravine in a mountain side. Shall be filled – brought low. In allusion to the practice of Eastern monarchs. On occasions of their progress, heralds were sent out to call on the people to clear and improve the old roads or to make new ones. “When Ibrahim Pacha proposed to visit certain places in Lebanon, the emirs and sheiks sent forth a general proclamation, somewhat in the style of Isaiah’s exhortation, to all the inhabitants to assemble along the proposed route and prepare the way before him. The same was done in 1845, on a grand scale, when the Sultan visited Brusa. The stones were gathered out, the crooked places straightened, and rough ones made level and smooth. I had the benefit of these labors a few days after his majesty ‘s visit. The exhortation ‘to gather out the stones ‘ (Isa 61:10) is peculiarly appropriate. These farmers do the exact reverse – gather up the stones from their fields and cast them into the highway; and it is this barbarous custom which, in many places, renders the paths uncomfortable and even dangerous” (Thomson, ” Land and Book “).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Every valley shall be filled,” (pasa pharagks plerothesetai) “Every valley shall be filled up,” in preparing the way for a royal one, an eminent person, such as a king.
2) “And every mountain and hill shall be brought low;” (kai pan oros kai bounos tapeinothesetai) “And every hill and mountain shall be laid low.” The metaphor is derived from a practice of ancient people to go before a king to clear the road, make it level.
3) “And the crooked shall be made straight,” (kai estai ta skolia eis eutheias) “And the crooked places shall be made into straight ones;” Sharp curves were to be straightened, so that a chariot was not to overturn, when traveling in haste with a king.
4) “And the rough ways shall be made smooth;” (kai hai tracheiai eis hodous leias) “And the rough ways or roads shall be made into, smooth roads or ways,” such as become a king. The bumpy places were to be planed, bladed, or cut down to a smooth level, for comfortable travel.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(5) Every valley shall be filled.The fuller citation by St. Luke, as compared with the other Gospels, is interesting, and suggests the thought that he was led to see in the manifold aspects of the Baptists ministry a fulfilment of this part of the prophecy. The valley was filled, when lowly and penitent souls received the assurance of pardon; mountains and hills were brought low when the pride of Pharisees and Sadducees was rebuked; the crooked made straight when Publicans learnt to be honest; the rough places smooth when soldiers were taught to do violence to no man. The imagery is, of course, taken from the work of pioneers levelling a road for the march of a great king.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(5) Here St. Matthews record stops, while St. Luke continues to trace the succession back to Adamhis list of names agreeing with those in Gen. 11:10 and 1Ch. 1:24-27 as far as Noah, and Genesis 5 and 1Ch. 1:1-4 from Noah to Adam, with the exception of the insertion of a Cainan between Arphaxad and Salah in the former section.
Each of these points calls for separate consideration, the first being obviously the most important.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(5) (a) The fact that the genealogy goes back to Adam may have been originally in the document which St. Luke translated, without any special significance; but it at least falls in with the whole character of his Gospel as intended to set forth the universality of the gospel, to prepare the way for the truth of the brotherhood of mankind in Christ. It represented Christ as the second Adam, as St. Matthews genealogy represented Him as the heir of Abraham. (b) The insertion of Cainan between Salah and Arphaxad agrees with the text of all known copies of the Greek version of Genesis 11. This may imply an original Hebrew text older than that which we now possess; but, on the other hand, as all existing copies of the LXX. version were made for Christian use, it is possible that the name may have been inserted to bring the genealogy in Genesis 11 into agreement with that given by St. Luke. The name does not appear in this place in the Vulgate, Syriac, or Samaritan versions of the Pentateuch, and in one of the best MSS. of the New Testament (the Codex Bez) it is wanting here. Further than this we cannot go in dealing with a question which, after all, is infinitesimally small in itself, and has no direct bearing on any graver issues.
It may be noted, lastly, that genealogies, such as those given by St. Matthew and St. Luke, were common in almost every Jewish family. The books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, compiled after the return from Babylon, show that they existed then. Josephus transcribes his own pedigree, from the time of the Asmonan, or Maccabean, priest-rulers, from public registers (Life, c. 1), and states (against Apion, i. 7) that not in Juda only, but in Alexandria and Babylon, and other cities, wherever the Jews were settled, such registers were kept of the births and marriages of all belonging to the priesthood; that copies were sent to Jerusalem; that the registers went back for 2,000 years. The prevalence of the name Cohen (= priest) among modern Jews indicates the same care in the priestly line. The members of the house of David were hardly likely to be less careful in preserving records of their descent than those of the house of Aaron. Hillel the scribe, i.e., was known to be of the lineage of David, and must have had evidence of some kind to prove it. So, at a later time, the Princes of the Captivity who ruled over the Jews of Babylonia, claimed their allegiance as sons of David.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
Ver. 5. Every valley shall be filled ] Every hole, or hollow, (Barathrum). Fainting of heart unfits the way for Christ, as well as the swelling hills of pride. Plain things will join in every point one with another; not so, rough and hollow things: so plain spirits close with God’s truths; not so, those that are swollen, and uneven.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luk 3:5 . , a ravine, here only in N. T. , the crooked places shall be (become) straight (ways, , understood) ( ), the rough ways shall become smooth.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 3:5. , valley) Where there is a hollow and void, which is for removed from true righteousness, as in the case of the publicans and soldiers: Luk 3:12; Luk 3:14.-, mountain) where there is a swelling [a tumid elevation] of human righteousness, or power, as in the case of Herod.-, , , a hill, the crooked places, the rough ways) Those things which are distorted [which have lost their due proportions and so are perverted]: I. as to depth and height, II. lengthwise, III. broadwise, shall be restored to their right places and proportions, and shall be made level.- , into a straight way) , way, has been left to be understood in the LXX. and so presently after, and the rough, viz. ways.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
valley: Luk 1:51-53, Isa 2:11-17, Isa 35:6-8, Isa 40:4, Isa 49:11, Isa 61:1-3, Eze 17:24, Jam 1:9
and the crooked: Isa 42:16, Isa 45:2, Heb 12:12, Heb 12:13
Reciprocal: Isa 43:19 – I will even Isa 57:14 – Cast Zec 4:7 – O great
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5
This verse is a figurative description of preparing the path mentioned in the preceding verse, which was to be accomplished by adjusting the conditions in the lives of men to suit them for the service of Christ who was to follow soon.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
[Every valley shall be filled.] The Jews have a tradition, that some such thing was done by the cloud that led Israel in the wilderness. Instead of many instances, take the Targumist upon Canticles 2:6; “There was a cloud went before them, three days’ journey, to take down the hills and raise the valleys; it slew all fiery serpents in the wilderness, and all scorpions; and found out for them a fit place to lodge in.”
What the meaning of the prophet in this passage was, Christians well enough understand. The Jews apply it to levelling and making the ways plain for Israel’s return out of captivity: for this was the main thing they expected from the Messiah, viz. to bring back the captivity of Israel.
“R. Chanan saith, Israel shall have no need of the doctrine of Messiah the King in time to come; for it is said, To him shall the Gentiles seek (Isa 11:10), but not Israel. If so, why then is Messiah to come? and what is he to do when he doth come? He shall gather together the captivity of Israel,” etc.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Luk 3:5-6. Every valley, etc. Luke adds Isa 40:4, and part of Luk 3:5. The removal of natural obstacles from the path of an approaching conqueror represents the removal of moral hindrances, by means of Johns preaching of repentance, before the coming Messiah.
The salvation of God. The salvation spoken of by Simeon (chap. Luk 2:30).