The voice of one crying in the wilderness

Cultural  

1. A phrase used in the Gospels to refer to John the Baptist. It is quoted from the Book of Isaiah; the full text reads: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.” The quotation is used to imply that John was preparing the way for Jesus, as foretold by the prophecy of Isaiah.

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Example Sentences

David Attenborough is the voice of one crying in the wilderness about the coming ecological apocalypse in “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet.”

From Los Angeles Times

Like the sect, he expected the Messiah, and like the sect—as Dr. Brownlee reminds us—he invoked, in this connection, the Second Isaiah: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord.”

From The New Yorker

It was in the desert that Moses hid himself in a cleft of the rock while the Lord passed by; that the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind; and from it that John the Baptist came forth, as the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

From Project Gutenberg

The preacher, who came literally as the ‘Voice of one crying in the wilderness,’ was manifestly not greatly experienced at that time in his work—but he was intensely earnest, courageous, outspoken, a faithful messenger; and under his ministrations many were reminded of their old-time church privileges ‘back in old Mizzoory,’ in ‘Kentuck,’ or in ‘Eelinoy,’ or elsewhere.

From Project Gutenberg

It is said, “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.”

From Project Gutenberg