Observe the fivefold repetition of the adverb “there” (ἐκεῖ, ekei) in these two verses, designating the wilderness itself as the place where God saves.56 This coheres with our earlier observation concerning the transformation of the notion of wilderness in a number of texts, from a place of judgment to one of blessing. Note, too, that these verses are closely tied intratextually to, and anticipate, the material on which Luke explicitly draws in Isa. 40:3–5.57 Of particular interest, of course,