But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft clothes? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
All Commentaries on Matthew 11:8 Go To Matthew 11
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Clothed in soft That the Baptist was not like the reeds, changeable by nature, the respect that the whole Jewish people paid him sufficiently evinced. Our Redeemer, therefore, proceeds to show that St. John was not changeable by his manner of life. Delicacies and effeminacy (the ordinary sources of fickleness of behaviour,) being found in the houses of kings, and the great ones of this earth, were far from being desired by the precursor. This he showed to the world by his garments of camels' hair, his habitation in the wilderness, his slender and insipid food of wild honey and locusts, and the prisons to which his constancy brought him. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxxviii).
