Matthew 3:4. The same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
See also Mark 1:6.
1. The “raiment of camel’s hair” was a coarse, rough outer garment, such as is still worn by the Arabs. It is made of the thin coarse hair of the camel. Some think, because Elijah is called “a hairy man” in 2 Kings 1:8, that he wore a garment of this sort. A rough garment seems to have been characteristic of a prophet. See Zechariah 13:4.
2. For a description of the girdle, see note on 1 Kings 18:46 (#314).
3. With many of the Bedouin on the frontiers locusts are still an article of food, though none but the poorest eat them. They are considered a very inferior sort of food. They are salted and dried, and eaten with butter or with wild honey. The fact that John ate this kind of food illustrates the extreme poverty or the forerunner of Christ, and shows the destitution he suffered by living in the wilderness far away from the haunts of men.