Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 3:4

"Now John himself had his raiment of camel`s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey." — Matthew 3:4 (ASV)

His raiment of camel's hair. This was his clothing. This is not the fine hair of the camel from which our elegant cloth is made, called camlet, nor the more elegant material brought from the East Indies under the name of camel's hair. Instead, it was the long, shaggy hair of the camel, from which a coarse, inexpensive cloth is made, still worn by the poorer classes in the East and by monks. This dress of camel's hair and a leather belt, it seems, was the common dress of the prophets (2 Kings 1:8; Zechariah 13:4).

His meat was locusts. This was his food. These constituted the food of the common people. Among the Greeks, the vilest of the people used to eat them, and the fact that John made his food of them is significant of his great poverty and humble life. The Jews were allowed to eat them (Leviticus 11:22).

Locusts are flying insects and are of various kinds. The green locusts are about two inches in length and about the thickness of a man's finger. The common brown locust is about three inches long. The general form and appearance of the locust is not unlike the grasshopper. They were one of the plagues of Egypt (Exodus 10:1). In eastern countries, they are very numerous. They appear in such quantities as to darken the sky and devour in a short time every green thing. The whole earth is sometimes covered with them for many leagues (Joel 1:4; Isaiah 33:4).

"Some species of the locust are eaten today in eastern countries and are even considered a delicacy when properly cooked. After tearing off the legs and wings and taking out the entrails, they stick them in long rows upon wooden spits, roast them at the fire, and then proceed to devour them with great zest.

There are also other ways of preparing them. For example: they cook them and dress them in oil; or, having dried them, they pulverize them, and when other food is scarce, make bread of the meal. The Bedouins pack them with salt in dense masses, which they carry in their leather sacks. From these, they cut slices as they may need them.

It is remarkable that even learned men have allowed themselves to hesitate about understanding these passages as referring to the literal locust, when the fact that these are eaten by people in the East is so abundantly proved by the concurrent testimony of travelers.

One of them says they are brought to market on strings in all the cities of Arabia, and that he saw an Arab on Mount Sumara who had collected a sack full of them. They are prepared in different ways. An Arab in Egypt, whom he asked to eat locusts in his presence immediately, threw them upon the glowing coals. After he supposed they were roasted enough, he took them by the legs and head and devoured the remainder in one mouthful.

When the Arabs have them in quantities, they roast or dry them in an oven, or boil them and eat them with salt. The Arabs in the kingdom of Morocco boil the locusts; and the Bedouins eat locusts, which are collected in great quantities in the beginning of April, when they are easily caught. After being roasted a little upon the iron plate on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun and then put into large sacks with a mixture of a little salt. They are never served up as a dish, but everyone takes a handful of them when hungry."

Un. Bib. Die.

Wild honey. This was probably the honey that he found in the rocks of the wilderness. Palestine was often called the land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8, 17; 13:5).

Bees were kept with great care, and large numbers of them abounded in the fissures of trees and the clefts of rocks. There is also a species of honey called wild honey, or wood-honey (1 Samuel 14:27), or honeydew, produced by certain little insects and deposited on the leaves of trees, flowing from them in great quantities to the ground (See 1 Samuel 14:24–27). This is said to be still produced in Arabia, and perhaps it was this that John lived on.