Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;

John Skinner, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges commentary, refers to verses 1-11 as the prologue (to Deutero-Isaiah).

John himself confessed that the verse pertains to him: Some English translations associate the reference to "the wilderness" with "the voice which cries out": examples include the King James Version and New King James Version, the Geneva Bible, Wycliffe's translation, the Darby Bible and Brenton's translation of the Septuagint.

[26] This verse contains several rare words  – such as דֹּק֙‎, doq ("curtain"), and מָתַח‎, mathach ("spread, stretch"), which are only found here, as well as ח֣וּג‎, chug ("circle"), which are only found in a few other verses (Proverbs 8:27; Job 22:14; Job 26:10) – suggesting "well-defined, distinctive traditions.

"[26] A part of the Hebrew text of Isaiah 40:4 was used by Shmuel Yosef Agnon as the title for his 1912-novella, "Vehaya Ha'akov Lemishor" ("The Crooked Shall Be Made Straight").

[37] The King James Version of verses 1–5, 9 and 11 from this chapter is cited as texts in the English-language oratorio "Messiah" by George Frideric Handel (HWV 56).