What Does Matthew 3:3 Mean?
For this is the one spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, A voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make ready the way of the LORD; make his trails straight.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.THE KEY
The “paths” are tracks worn by passage, so the verse pictures the Lord’s way being readied by straightening routes already marked into the ground.
THE MEANING
A voice meets the reader in the wilderness and calls for the Lord’s way to be prepared. The Greek pictures both a road and tracks worn by passage, then calls those tracks straight. The Lord’s arrival is pictured as a route becoming clear and direct in a place that looks empty.
THE ROOT
τὰς τρίβους
tas tribous
GROWS FROM
τριβ- (trib-), from τρίβω (tribō)
To rub, wear down, or tread; a τρίβος is a track worn by passage.
“trails” in this verse is tas tribous. The English “paths” can sound like lines simply laid out on the ground. The Greek word carries the trace of movement: passage wears a track into the terrain, and that track is made straight.
ALSO GROWS
tribō: Rub, wear down, or tread.
τρίβω
The verb names the repeated action that leaves a track behind.
tribē: Rubbing, friction, or wearing.
τριβή
This related form keeps the physical sense of contact and wear inside the word for a path.
τὴν ὁδόν
tēn hodon
GROWS FROM
ὁδ-
hod-
Road, route, or way.
The verse places the Lord’s ὁδός, the road or way, beside the worn tracks that are made straight. English keeps both images, but the Greek makes their relationship clear: a route is prepared through terrain already marked by movement.
ALSO GROWS
hodoiporia: A journey or journey by road.
ὁδοιπορία
The way is not only a surface; it is also the route of a journey.
hodoiporeō: Travel by road.
ὁδοιπορέω
This verb from the same word family carries the road into the act of traveling.
εὐθείας
eutheias
GROWS FROM
εὐθυ-
euthy-
Straight, direct, or aligned.
The command is not merely to make a path exist; it is to make its course direct. The same word family can describe both a straight route and the act of making something straight.
ALSO GROWS
euthynō: Make straight or direct.
εὐθύνω
This verb makes explicit the action carried by the command to straighten the tracks.
euthytēs: Straightness or directness.
εὐθύτης
This related noun names the quality the path takes on when its course is made straight.
THE PATTERN
The way of the Lord is made direct through terrain that can otherwise obstruct or mislead.
A voice calls out in the wilderness, Clear the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a raised road for our God.Lead me, LORD, in your alignment because of those who watch for me; make your way straight before my face.And make straight tracks for your feet, so that what limps may not be turned aside, but rather be healed.THE THREAD
Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.The Greek word translated “way” here is ὁδός (hodós), the same word Jesus uses when he says, “I am the way.” Matthew pictures a route prepared for the Lord; John uses that same word to name the one who is the way.
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