Mark 1:4

the wilderness i. e. the dry and unpeopled region extending from the gates of Hebron to the shores of the Dead Sea. "It is a dreary waste of rocky valleys; in some parts stern and terrible, the rocks cleft and shattered by earthquakes and convulsions into rifts and gorges, sometimes a thousand feet in depth, though only thirty or forty in width … The whole district is, in fact, the slope of the midland chalk and limestone hills, from their highest point of nearly 3000 feet near Hebron, to 1000 or 1500 feet at the valley of the Dead Sea. The Hebrews fitly call it Jeshimon (1 Samuel 23:19; 1 Samuel 23:24), -the appalling desolation," or -horror."  "

for the remission or unto the remission. See margin and comp. Matthew 26:28; Luke 1:77. This remission was to be received of the Messiah. John required of allwho came to him a change of mind and life with a view to pardon from Christ. Thus his baptism was preparatory to that of Christ.