And he came into all the country about Jordan— What St. Luke terms the country about Jordan, St. Matthew calls the hill-country of Judea: their accounts maybe illustrated from Josephus, who tells us, that the mountains above Jericho ran north as far as Scythopolis, and south to the territory of Sodom, at the bottom of the Asphalticlake: opposite to this there was another range of mountains on the other side of Jordan, beginning at Julias, where the river falls into the sea of Galilee; and extending themselves southward to the extremity also of the Asphaltic lake. The plain between these mountains, and through which the Jordan ran, was called the Aulon, also the Campus Magnus, or Great Plain; and is often mentioned in the Jewish history. According to Josephus, the length of the Aulon was from the village of Ginnabris, to the northern extremity of the Asphaltic lake, and measured 1200 stadia; but its breadth between the mountains was only 120 stadia. The Scriptures, however, extend the Campus Magnus to the southern extremity, or bottom of the Dead Sea; Deuteronomy 34:1-3 which for that reason they call the sea of the plain. There is another Campus Magnus mentioned by Josephus, called also The Plain of Esdraelon, from the city ofJezreel. This plain extendeditself from Scythopolis on the east, to the plain of Ptolemais, or Acra, on the west. The plain of Acre on the north was bounded by a range of hills, and to the south by mount Carmel, but eastward it was joined to the plain of Esdraelon by a narrow way. Besides the above-mentioned, there is a large extent of flat country lying along the Mediterranean, from mount Carmel to the utmost boundary of the land southward. In this plain there were no mountains, only a few sandy hillocks, such as at Joppa, on which Gath of the Philistines is said to have been built. These were all the remarkable plains in the land of Israel; the rest of the country was high and mountainous, having but small openings or flats between the ridges of the hills. With respect to the Jordan, we learn from Josephus, as well as from other modern travellers, that it was a very large and rapid river. See his Wars, B. 3. 100: 18. Shaw's Travels, p. 373. Maundrell's Journey, p. 81 and the notes on Joshua 3:13.Jeremiah 49:19. The particular part of the river where John baptized was called Bethabara, or the house of the passage; either because the Israelites anciently passed over at that place, or because it was the common fording or ferrying place, to and from Judea. On either supposition, the banks of the river there must have been free of wood, and not so steep as those described in the place above referred to. If Bethabara was the place where the people under Joshua passed the river, it stood directly opposite to Jericho. If it was the then common ferrying-place, we may suppose that the Baptist chose it for the sake of making himself better known, and that he might have an opportunity of addressing greater numbers of his countrymen, as they travelled from one part of the country to another.
Preaching the baptism of repentance— John being called to prepare the Jews for the reception of the Messiah, he atchieved this work through divine grace, by pressing all ranks of men to repent,— Μετανοειν, that is to say, to alter their practical judgments concerning things, and to be suitably affected with remorse and shame for their guilt and past misconduct: but the Baptist did not stop here; he required all his hearers to bring forth fruits meet for repentance; (Luke 3:8.) that is, enjoined them to make a thorough reformation in their lives: and all this is well described, and fully expressed, in the metaphorical language of the prophet, quoted in the next verses. The Baptist inculcated likewise this doctrine by the rite of baptism, which represented the nature and necessity of repentance to men's senses, as his sermons set these things before their understandings. See the note on Matthew 3:2 and on Isaiah 40:3.