Luke 3:5
New International Version
Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.

New Living Translation
The valleys will be filled, and the mountains and hills made level. The curves will be straightened, and the rough places made smooth.

English Standard Version
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,

Berean Standard Bible
Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.

Berean Literal Bible
Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; and the crooked will become into straight, and the rough ways into smooth.

King James Bible
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;

New King James Version
Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth;

New American Standard Bible
‘EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE LOWERED; THE CROOKED WILL BECOME STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH;

NASB 1995
‘EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED WILL BECOME STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH;

NASB 1977
‘EVERY RAVINE SHALL BE FILLED UP, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL SHALL BE BROUGHT LOW; AND THE CROOKED SHALL BECOME STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH;

Legacy Standard Bible
EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED WILL BE STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH.

Amplified Bible
‘EVERY RAVINE SHALL BE FILLED UP, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL SHALL BE LEVELED; AND THE CROOKED [places] SHALL BE MADE STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH;

Christian Standard Bible
Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth,

American Standard Version
Every valley shall be filled, And every mountain and hill shall be brought low; And the crooked shall become straight, And the rough ways smooth;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
“All the valleys will be filled and all the mountains and high places will be leveled and the rugged place will be smooth and the difficult region a plain,”

Contemporary English Version
Fill up every valley and level every mountain and hill. Straighten the crooked paths and smooth out the rough roads.

Douay-Rheims Bible
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 plain;

English Revised Version
Every valley shall be filled, And every mountain and hill shall be brought low; And the crooked shall become straight, And the rough ways smooth;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be leveled. The crooked ways will be made straight. The rough roads will be made smooth.

Good News Translation
Every valley must be filled up, every hill and mountain leveled off. The winding roads must be made straight, and the rough paths made smooth.

International Standard Version
Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be leveled. The crooked ways will be made straight, and the rough roads will be made smooth.

Literal Standard Version
Every valley will be filled, | And every mountain and hill will be made low, | And the crooked will become straightness, | And the rough become smooth ways;

Majority Standard Bible
Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.

New American Bible
Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth,

NET Bible
Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth,

New Revised Standard Version
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;

New Heart English Bible
Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.

Webster's Bible Translation
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;

Weymouth New Testament
Every ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill levelled down, the crooked places shall be turned into straight roads, and the rugged ways into smooth;

World English Bible
Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth.

Young's Literal Translation
every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straightness, and the rough become smooth ways;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Mission of John the Baptist
4as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him. 5Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth. 6And all humanity will see God’s salvation.’ ”…

Cross References
Isaiah 40:4
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.

Isaiah 42:16
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.


Treasury of Scripture

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;

valley.

Luke 1:51-53
He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts…

Isaiah 2:11-17
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day…

Isaiah 35:6-8
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert…

and the crooked.

Isaiah 42:16
And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Isaiah 45:2
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

Hebrews 12:12,13
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; …

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Luke 3
1. The preaching and baptism of John;
15. his testimony of Jesus;
19. Herod imprisons John;
21. Jesus, baptized, receives testimony from heaven.
23. The age and genealogy of Jesus from Joseph upwards.














(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 Baptist's 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.

(5) Here St. Matthew's record stops, while St. Luke continues to trace the succession back to Adam--his list of names agreeing with those in Genesis 11:10 and 1Chronicles 1:24-27 as far as Noah, and Genesis 5 and 1Chronicles 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.

(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. Matthew's 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 Asmonaean, or Maccabean, priest-rulers, from public registers (Life, c. 1), and states (against Apion, i. 7) that not in Judaea 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.

Verse 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. Godet and other commentators suggest, though they do not press, a particular application to each of the details of the picture. "For instance, the mountains that must be levelled may be referred to the pride of the Pharisees; the valleys to filled up, to the moral and religious indifference of such as the Sadducees; the crooked places to be made straight, to the frauds and lying excuses of the publicans; and lastly, the rough places, to the sinful habits found in all, even the best.'

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Every
πᾶσα (pasa)
Adjective - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3956: All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole.

valley
φάραγξ (pharanx)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5327: A valley, ravine, chasm, cleft. Properly, strengthened from the base of peran or rather of rhegnumi; a gap or chasm, i.e. Ravine.

shall be filled in,
πληρωθήσεται (plērōthēsetai)
Verb - Future Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 4137: From pleres; to make replete, i.e. to cram, level up, or to furnish, satisfy, execute, finish, verify, etc.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

every
πᾶν (pan)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3956: All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole.

mountain
ὄρος (oros)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3735: A mountain, hill. Probably from an obsolete oro; a mountain: -hill, mount(-ain).

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

hill
βουνὸς (bounos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1015: A hillock, hill. Probably of foreign origin; a hillock.

made low.
ταπεινωθήσεται (tapeinōthēsetai)
Verb - Future Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 5013: To make or bring low, humble, humiliate; pass: To be humbled. From tapeinos; to depress; figuratively, to humiliate.

The
τὰ (ta)
Article - Nominative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

crooked [ways]
σκολιὰ (skolia)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Plural
Strong's 4646: Crooked, perverse, unfair, curved, tortuous. From the base of skelos; warped, i.e. Winding; figuratively, perverse.

shall be made
ἔσται (estai)
Verb - Future Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

straight,
εὐθείαν (eutheian)
Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2117: Perhaps from eu and tithemi; straight, i.e. level, or true; adverbially at once.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

the
αἱ (hai)
Article - Nominative Feminine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

rough
τραχεῖαι (tracheiai)
Adjective - Nominative Feminine Plural
Strong's 5138: Rough, rugged, uneven. Perhaps strengthened from the base of rhegnumi; uneven, rocky.

ways
ὁδοὺς (hodous)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural
Strong's 3598: A way, road, journey, path. Apparently a primary word; a road; by implication, a progress; figuratively, a mode or means.

smooth.
λείας (leias)
Adjective - Accusative Feminine Plural
Strong's 3006: Smooth, level, plain. Apparently a primary word; smooth, i.e. 'level'.


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NT Gospels: Luke 3:5 Every valley will be filled (Luke Lu Lk)
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