| Matthew 3:4
| And John himself had his garment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
| His garment of camels' hair,{ Ver. 4. St. Hierom.[St. Jerome] lib. 2. con. Jovin. tom. 4. part. 2. p. 201. Orientales, et Libyae populos . . . locustis vesci, moris est. Theophylactus by akrides, understands buds of trees.|} not wrought camlet as some would have it, but made of the skin of a camel, with the hair on it. Thus Elias (4 Kings, 1:8,) is called an hairy man, with a leathern girdle about him. --- Locusts, not sea-crabs, as others again expound it; but a sort of flies, or grasshoppers, frequent in hot countries. They are numbered among eatables. (Leviticus 11:22) St. Jerome and others mention them as a food of the common people, when dried with smoke and salt. Theophylactus, by the Greek word, understands the tops of trees or buds. (Witham)
|