Matthew 3:4
Parallel Verses
New International Version
John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.


English Standard Version
Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.


New American Standard Bible
Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.


King James Bible
And 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.


Holman Christian Standard Bible
John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.


International Standard Version
John had clothing made of camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist. His diet consisted of grasshoppers and wild honey.


American Standard Version
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.


Douay-Rheims Bible
And the same John had his garment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey.


Darby Bible Translation
And John himself had his garment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his nourishment was locusts and wild honey.


Young's Literal Translation
And this John had his clothing of camel's hair, and a girdle of skin round his loins, and his nourishment was locusts and honey of the field.


Cross References
Leviticus 11:22
Even these of them you may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.


1 Samuel 14:26
And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath.


2 Kings 1:8
And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.


Isaiah 20:2
At the same time spoke the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put off your shoe from your foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.


Zechariah 13:4
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he has prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:


Matthew 11:8
But what went you out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.


Matthew 11:18
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a devil.


Mark 1:6
And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;


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Commentaries
3:1-6 After Malachi there was no prophet until John the Baptist came. He appeared first in the wilderness of Judea. This was not an uninhabited desert, but a part of the country not thickly peopled, nor much enclosed. No place is so remote as to shut us out from the visits of Divine grace. The doctrine he preached was repentance; Repent ye. The word here used, implies a total alteration in the mind, a change in the judgment, disposition, and affections, another and a better bias of the soul. Consider your ways, change your minds: you have thought amiss; think again, and think aright. True penitents have other thoughts of God and Christ, sin and holiness, of this world and the other, than they had. The change of the mind produces a change of the way. That is gospel repentance, which flows from a sight of Christ, from a sense of his love, and from hopes of pardon and forgiveness through him. It is a great encouragement to us to repent; repent, for your sins shall be pardoned upon your repentance. Return to God in a way of duty, and he will, through Christ, return unto you in the way of mercy. It is still as necessary to repent and humble ourselves, to prepare the way of the Lord, as it then was. There is a great deal to be done, to make way for Christ into a soul, and nothing is more needful than the discovery of sin, and a conviction that we cannot be saved by our own righteousness. The way of sin and Satan is a crooked way; but to prepare a way for Christ, the paths must be made straight, Heb 12:13. Those whose business it is to call others to mourn for sin, and to mortify it, ought themselves to live a serious life, a life of self-denial, and contempt of the world. By giving others this example, John made way for Christ. Many came to John's baptism, but few kept to the profession they made. There may be many forward hearers, where there are few true believers. Curiosity, and love for novelty and variety, may bring many to attend on good preaching, and to be affected for a while, who never are subject to the power of it. Those who received John's doctrine, testified their repentance by confessing their sins. Those only are ready to receive Jesus Christ as their righteousness, who are brought with sorrow and shame to own their guilt. The benefits of the kingdom of heaven, now at hand, were thereupon sealed to them by baptism. John washed them with water, in token that God would cleanse them from all their iniquities, thereby intimating, that by nature and practice all were polluted, and could not be admitted among the people of God, unless washed from their sins in the fountain Christ was to open, Zec 13:1.

4. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair—woven of it.

and a leathern girdle about his loins—the prophetic dress of Elijah (2Ki 1:8; and see Zec 13:4).

and his meat was locusts—the great, well-known Eastern locust, a food of the poor (Le 11:22).

and wild honey—made by wild bees (1Sa 14:25, 26). This dress and diet, with the shrill cry in the wilderness, would recall the stern days of Elijah.

Matthew 3:3
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