John and his message were authorized by Isaiah’s prophecy:

Thunder in the desert!
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!

4-6 John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.

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This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”[a](A)

John’s(B) clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist.(C) His food was locusts(D) and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 3:3 Isaiah 40:3