Tyre - Sidon, etc. - See Matthew 11:21.

When they had heard what great things he did, came unto him - So, if Christ be persecuted and abandoned by the wicked, there are a multitude of pious souls who earnestly seek and follow him. He who labors for God will always find more than he loses, in the midst of all his contradictions and persecutions.

And from Jerusalem,.... The metropolis of the country of Judea;

and from Idumea, or Edom, as the Syriac version reads it; a country that lay on the south of Judea, formerly inhabited by the sons of Edom, but now by Jews; or at least the inhabitants of it were proselytes to the Jewish religion. Mention is made of the plains of Idumea, along with Gazera, Azotus, and Jamnia, as in 1:Maccabees:

"Howbeit all the hindmost of them were slain with the sword: for they pursued them unto Gazera, and unto the plains of Idumea, and Azotus, and Jamnia, so that there were slain of them upon a three thousand men.'' (1 Maccabees 4:15)

Pliny (t) speaks of Idumea and Judea together, as a part of Syria; and Ptolemy says (u), this country lies on the west of the river Jordan; and it is here added,

and from beyond Jordan; the country of Peraea, on the east of Jordan:

and they about Tyre and Sidon; either the inhabitants of these places, as the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions favour, reading "a great company from Tyre and Sidon"; or those that lived near the borders, and upon the confines of these cities of Phoenicia:

a great multitude; when all met together, from these several parts; who

when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him: for his fame went through all the countries, for the miracles he wrought; which drew this vast concourse of people after him; and who, inquiring where he was, came to him at the sea of Galilee.

(t) Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 12. (u) Geograph. l. 5. c. 16.

He did (ἐποίει)

Imperfect tense. Others read ποιεῖ, he is doing. In either case the tense has a continuous force' what things he was doing or is doing. Note in Mark 3:7, Mark 3:8, Mark's accurate detail of places. See Introduction. The reasons for our Lord's withdrawing into a boat, given with such minuteness of detail in Mark 3:9, are also peculiar to Mark.

And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from {f} beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.

(f) Which Josephus called stony or rocky.

3:8 Idumaea. More anciently called Edom. Southeast of the Jordan, and south of the Dead Sea. That country was occupied by the descendants of Esau. Herod the Great was, on his father's side, an Idumaean.

Tyre and Sidon. See PNT Mt 11:21.

3:8 From Idumea - The natives of which had now professed the Jewish religion above a hundred and fifty years. They about Tyre and Sidon - The Israelites who lived in those coasts.

3:6-12 All our sicknesses and calamities spring from the anger of God against our sins. Their removal, or the making them blessings to us, was purchased to us by the blood of Christ. But the plagues and diseases of our souls, of our hearts, are chiefly to be dreaded; and He can heal them also by a word. May more and more press to Christ to be healed of these plagues, and to be delivered from the enemies of their souls.