Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 2:16

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

16 18. The Slaying of the Children at Bethlehem

16. and sent forth, and slew ] i. e. he sent assassins to slay.

all the children ] Lit. all the male children.

coasts ] i. e. borders or neighbourhood.

from two years old and under ] If we adopt the hypothesis regarding the star mentioned above, a satisfactory explanation is given for Herod’s directions, which otherwise it is difficult to explain. Even if the above theory is not the true one, the two years mentioned in the text are clearly connected with the astronomical appearances described by the Magi, in answer to Herod’s “diligent inquiries.”

Profane history passes over this atrocity in silence. But Josephus may well have found his pages unequal to contain a complete record of all the cruel deeds of a tyrant like Herod. Macaulay relates that the massacre of Glencoe is not even alluded to in the pages of Evelyn, a most diligent recorder of passing political events. Besides, the crime was executed with secrecy, the number of children slain was probably very inconsiderable, for Bethlehem was but a small town; and though it was possibly crowded at the time (Luk 2:7), the number of very young children would not have been considerably augmented by those strangers.

The whole scene must have been very different from that which is presented to us on the canvas of the great medival artists.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men – When he saw that he had been deceived by them; that is, that they did not return as he had expected. It does not mean that they did it for the purpose of mocking or deriding him, but that he was disappointed in their not returning, or that he had been trifled with.

Exceeding wroth – Very angry. He had been disappointed and deceived. He expected to send an executioner and kill Jesus alone. But, since he was disappointed in this, he thought he would accomplish the same thing, and be sure to destroy him, if he sent forth and put all the children in the place to death. This is an illustration of the power of anger. It stops at nothing. If it cannot accomplish just what it wishes, it does not hesitate to go much further, and accomplish much more evil than it at first designed. He that has a wicked heart, and indulges in anger, knows not where it will end, and will commonly commit far more evil than he at first intended.

Slew all the children – That is, all the male children. This is implied in the original. The design of Herod was to cut off him that had been born king of the Jews. His purpose, therefore, did not require that he should slay the female children; and though he was cruel, yet we have no right to think that he attempted anything except what he thought to be for his own safety, and to secure himself from a rival.

In all the coasts thereof – The word coast is commonly applied now to the regions around the sea, as the seacoast. Here it means the adjacent places, the settlements or hamlets around Bethlehem – all that were in that neighborhood. We do not know how large a place Bethlehem was, nor, of course, how many were slain; but it was never a large town, and the number could not be very great. It is not probable that it contained more than one or two thousand inhabitants, and in this case the number of children killed was not over twenty or thirty.

From two years old and under – Some writers have said that this does not mean, in the original, that they had completed two years; but that they had entered on the second year, or had completed about one year, and entered on the second. But the meaning of the word is doubtful. It is quite probable that they would not be particular about the exact age, but killed all that were about that age.

According to the time … – He had endeavored to ascertain of the wise men the exact time of his birth. He supposed he knew the age of Jesus. He slew, therefore, all that were of his age; that is, all that were born about the time when the star appeared – perhaps from six months old to two years. There is no reason to think that he would command those to be slain who had been born after the star appeared.

This destruction of the infants of Bethlehem is not mentioned by Josephus, but for this omission three reasons may be given:

1. Josephus, a Jewish historian and a Jew, would not be likely to record anything that would appear to confirm the truth of Christianity.

2. This act of Herod was really so small, compared with his other crimes, that the historian might not think it worthy of record. Bethlehem was a small and obscure village, and the other crimes of Herod were so great and so public, that it is not to be wondered at that the Jewish historian has passed over this.

3. The order was probably given in secret, and might not have been known to Josephus. It pertained to the Christian history; and if the evangelists had not recorded it, it might have been unknown or forgotten. Besides, no argument can be drawn from the silence of the Jewish historian. No reason can be given why Matthew should not be considered to be as fully entitled to credit as Josephus. Yet there is no improbability in the account given by Matthew.

Herod was an odious and bloody tyrant, and the facts of his reign prove that he was abundantly capable of this wickedness. The following bloody deeds will show that the slaying of the infants was in perfect accordance with his character. The account is taken from Josephus, as arranged by Dr. Lardner. Aristobulus, brother of his wife Mariamne, was murdered by his direction at eighteen years of age, because the people of Jerusalem had shown some affection for his person. In the seventh year of his reign, he put to death Hyrcanus, grandfather of Mariamne, then 80 years of age, and who had formerly saved Herods life; a man who had, in every revolution of fortune, shown a mild and peaceable disposition. His beloved and beautiful wife, Mariamne, had a public execution, and her mother Alexandra followed soon after – Alexander and Aristobulus, his two sons by Mariamne, were strangled in prison by his orders upon groundless suspicions, as it seems, when they were at mans estate, were married, and had children.

In his last sickness, a little before he died, he sent orders throughout Judea requiring the presence of all the chief men of the nation at Jericho. His orders were obeyed, for they were enforced with no less penalty than that of death. When they were come to Jericho he had them all shut up in the circus, and calling for his sister Salome and her husband Alexis, he said to them, My life now is short, I know the Jewish people, and nothing will please them better than my death. You have them now in your custody. As soon as the breath is out of my body, and before my death can be known, do you let in the soldiers upon them and kill them. All Judea, then, and every family, will, though unwillingly, mourn at my death. No, Josephus says that with tears in his eyes he conjured them, by their love to him and their fidelity to God, not to fail of doing him this honor. What objection, after this account, can there be to the account of his murdering the infants at Bethlehem? Surely there could be no cruelty, barbarity, or horrid crime which such a man was not capable of perpetrating.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 2:16

Slew all the children.

The holy innocents

The narrative presents sharp contrasts of character and history.

I. Christ the terror of the tyrant even when a helpless babe.

II. The tyrants utmost endeavours are all in vain against the child.

III. Our richest blessings are often baptized with blood.

IV. The children of Bethlehem were unconscious martyrs for Christ.

V. The holy innocents died for Christs sake. (S. Mease, D. D.)

I. How strongly the scene of our Lords nativity was guarded.

1. From the gusts of popular commotion, which were above all things to be prevented, in order that full scope might be left for the gradual development of the Redeemers ministry with its attendant evidences, all which would have been hindered and disturbed by any sudden tumult excited in the body of the Jewish people.

2. It was guarded also by securing to it such decisive and indubitable marks of the certainty of that which was transacted, as never could be brought in question, or disputed. These points discover to us in the plainest character the wisdom and control of Providence in all the work which was effected. The first stone laid was thus deeply placed and immovably fixed where it stands to this day.

II. Three sorts of hands were employed on Earth to set their seal to that witness which was borne from heaven, and to commend it to perpetual regard.

1. Friends. The shepherds of Judaea were of all persons the fittest from their solitary and sequestered lives to bear that part which belongs to friends, and to become the first-called witnesses of the truth of those events which took place at our Lords nativity. They raised no clamour. They possessed no influence. And yet a simple heart and unsuspected tongue form no inconsiderable properties in any witness whose word is to be taken for the truth and reality of what is seen and done.

2. Strangers. Men clear of just suspicion. They came from afar and took their first measures in concert, not with friends, but with those who were soon to fill the place of foes and to stand forth as virulent opponents.

3. Enemies. Herod. He laid traps to ensnare the strangers, causing them to depart the land by another course. The word of prophecy was exactly brought to pass by the cruel stratagem which he devised and executed. By his relentless act of mingled cowardice and cruelty he lent his own hand, polluted as it was, to the confirmation of the truth. Herods cruelty at Bethlehem stands recorded both by friends and foes. Not only is it related in the sacred page, but it is also transmitted to us by writers of that age, whose undisputed works confirm the truth. (Archdeacon Pott.)

Holy innocents

1. We may notice in connection with this transaction very great opportunities, and very satisfactory information, very perversely employed.

2. What a treacherous thing is the indulgence of malignant passion and self-seeking.

3. We are reminded of the estate of Christ and of those who come within His circle, in relation to the present world. (a) Learn not to be unduly alarmed for the ark of the Lord. Jesus in His cradle is mightier than Herod on his throne.

(2) Not to be unduly grieved at our losses and sufferings for Christs sake. The cause is safe.

(3) Learn the importance of having our children in close relation to Christ. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

The slaughter of the innocents

Glance at the history. Herods the most striking instance of open opposition to God. He knew the prophecies, yet fought against their fulfilment. Some surprise that God permitted this slaughter.

I. It is not necessary to the vindication of Gods dealings that we should always be able to give reasons for their every part. There are reasons which will tend to remove surprise that Herod was not restrained from murder.

1. This murder would fix Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Christ. Prophecy had announced this. Herods sword corroborated this.

2. This murder would enable Jesus to live in obscurity until thirty years of age. Brought up at Nazareth, He was regarded as a Nazarite. The slaughter of the innocents would prove His birth at Bethlehem. Herod supposed his object gained, so the infant Christ was allowed to rest in obscurity.

3. God was leaving Herod to fill up the measure of his sin.

4. God was unquestionably disciplining the parents by the slaughter of their children.

II. The consequences of the slaughter as far as the innocents themselves were concerned. Dying before they knew evil from good, they were saved by the virtue of Christs propitiation. Not best to die in infancy; better to win the victory than be spared the fight. They are reckoned amongst the martyrs of the church. Teaching for those who bury their children. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Instances of infantile murder

It has been too often the cruel policy of the despots of the East to consolidate the foundation of their thrones by the slaughter of all who had claims or power to dispute their authority (2Ki 10:1-14). The history of Abyssinia furnishes an instance of a tyrant ordering the destruction of about 400 children. Niebuhr mentions an Arabian prince who murdered all the remotest descendants of his predecessors he heard of; and Sir Thomas Roe states, that a king of Pegu, in order to destroy a nephew of his own, whose claims interfered with his possession of the crown, and who was secreted by his partizans among a vast multitude of the children of the grandees, commanded the whole to be slaughtered, to the number of 4,000-a massacre much more terrible than Herods, in which it is thought that not more than fifty infants fell a prey to the tyrants jealousy. (Dr. Jamieson.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 16. Slew all the children] This cruelty of Herod seems alluded to in very decisive terms by Macrobius, who flourished toward the conclusion of the fourth Century. In his chapter De jocis Augusti in alios, et aliorum rursus in ipsum, he says, Cum audisset inter pueros, quos in Syria Herodes, rex Judeorum, intra bimatum jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait, Melius est Herodis PORCUM esse, quam FILIUM. “When he heard that among those male infants about two years old, which Herod, the king of the Jews, ordered to be slain in Syria, one of his sons was also murdered, he said: ‘It is better to be Herod’s HOG than his SON.'” Saturn. lib. ii. c. 4. The point of this saying consists in this, that Herod, professing Judaism, his religion forbade his killing swine, or having any thing to do with their flesh; therefore his hog would have been safe, where his son lost his life.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Herod now expounds what he meant by his coming and worshipping Christ also, which he talked of Mat 2:8.

When he saw that he was mocked, &c; really mocked by their coming no more to him; not that they used any mocking language, or designed by their actions to deceive him, but probably intended to have gone back according to his desire, but that they were otherwise admonished by God in a dream.

He was exceeding wroth, as great persons used to be when they see any great design they have frustrated by their inferiors,

and sent forth, and slew all the children in Bethlehem, and in the coasts thereof, from two years old and under: he sent forth soldiers, or executioners, and slew all the children. There is a tradition that amongst them he slew his own son, and that Augustus Caesar, hearing it, should say, “It was better to be Herods hog than his child, because the Jews will eat no swines flesh.” Others say this is but a fable, for his son died very few days before himself.

From two years old and under: if we take these words as they seem to sound, they would incline us to think that Christ was near two years old before the wise men came; but some very learned men think they came within a year or little more, and that the term we translate “two years old,” signifieth persons that had never so little entered upon the second year of their age: so as if a child were but a year and a week old, he was properly enough called one of two years old, that is, who had began his second year. Hence they think that the star appeared some little matter above a year before they came to Bethlehem; and considering at how great distance some parts in Arabia were from Jerusalem, they think that a year might well be ran out in their deliberations about, and preparations for, and despatch of their journey. Thus they interpret the next words,

according to the time he had diligently inquired of the wise men, that they had told them that it was something above a year since the star appeared first. This is now a middle way between those who (very improbably) think that they came within thirteen days, too short a time doubtless for such a journey, and those that think they came not till near two years, which to some seemeth as much too long. I leave it to the readers judgment.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16. Then Herod, c.As Deborahsang of the mother of Sisera: “She looked out at a window, andcried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? whytarry the wheels of his chariots? Have they not sped?” so Herodwonders that his messengers, with pious zeal, are not hastening withthe news that all is ready to receive him as a worshipper. What canbe keeping them? Have they missed their way? Has any disasterbefallen them? At length his patience is exhausted. He makes hisinquiries and finds they are already far beyond his reach on theirway home.

when he saw that he wasmockedwas trifled with.

of the wise menNo,Herod, thou art not mocked of the wise men, but of a Higher thanthey. He that sitteth in the heavens doth laugh at thee the Lord haththee in derision. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so thattheir hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise intheir own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carriedheadlong (Psa 2:4; Job 5:12;Job 5:13). That blessed Babeshall die indeed, but not by thy hand. As He afterwards told that sonof thineas cunning and as unscrupulous as thyselfwhen thePharisees warned Him to depart, for Herod would seek to killHim“Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast outdevils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day Ishall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow,and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out ofJerusalem” (Luk 13:32;Luk 13:33). Bitter satire!

was exceeding wrothTobe made a fool of is what none like, and proud kings cannot stand.Herod burns with rage and is like a wild bull in a net. So he

sent fortha band ofhired murderers.

and slew all thechildrenmale children.

that were in Bethlehem, andin all the coasts thereofenvirons.

from two years old and under,according to the time which he had diligentlycarefully.

inquired of the wise menInthis ferocious step Herod was like himselfas crafty as cruel. Hetakes a large sweep, not to miss his mark. He thinks this will surelyembrace his victim. And so it had, if He had been there. But He isgone. Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away than thou shalt havethat Babe into thy hands. Therefore, Herod, thou must be content towant Him: to fill up the cup of thy bitter mortifications, alreadyfull enoughuntil thou die not less of a broken heart than of aloathsome and excruciating disease. Why, ask skeptics and skepticalcritics, is not this massacre, if it really occurred, recorded byJOSEPHUS, who is minuteenough in detailing the cruelties of Herod? To this the answer is notdifficult. If we consider how small a town Bethlehem was, it is notlikely there would be many male children in it from two years old andunder; and when we think of the number of fouler atrocities whichJOSEPHUS has recorded ofhim, it is unreasonable to make anything of his silence on this.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked,…. Herod, having waited a proper time for the return of the wise men, and they not coming, concluded he was tricked by them; though, no doubt, when they promised to return, and bring him word how things were, they seriously meant and designed a performance; but having met with a divine oracle, which ordered them another way, they thought it most advisable to obey God rather than man. Upon this,

Herod was exceeding wroth; partly at the usage he met with from the wise men, who according to his apprehension had put a trick upon him; and chiefly because his scheme was broke, which was by them to come at the knowledge and sight of the young child, and privately dispatch him: and now he might fear, which increased his wrath, that the child would escape his hands, and in time be set up for king, to the prejudice of him and his family; wherefore, to prevent this, if possible, he

sent forth his officers and soldiers, of his own will, without any show of law or justice, acting herein as an absolute and tyrannical prince,

and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under. A most cruel and barbarous action, and agrees with the character given of him, that he was in the beginning of his reign, and it seems too in the latter end of it, , “a bloody and deceitful man” n: he slew, or ordered to be slain, “children”, infants who had done him no injury, nor were capable of doing any, and whose parents also had not disobliged him; he slew the infants at Bethlehem, because this was the place of the Messiah’s birth, the knowledge of which he had got from the chief priests and scribes; he slew all of them, that there might be no possibility of the young child’s escaping: and lest it should by any means escape to a neighbouring town or village, he slew all the children

in all the coasts thereof, in all the territories of Bethlehem, in all the towns and villages around it, as many as were

from two years old and under: for of such an age he supposed the newborn king to be; he knew he must be near that age, but could not exceed it,

according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men; of the appearing of the star to them, and when they concluded this great and famous prince was born. This cruel murder of the infants seems to be hinted at by Josephus o, where he says, that “many slaughters followed the prediction of a new king”; and is more manifestly referred to by Macrobins, a Heathen author, though the story is mixed and confounded with other things; who reports p, that

“when Augustus heard, that among the children under two years of age, whom Herod king of the Jews ordered to be slain in Syria, that his son was also killed, said, it was better to be Herod’s hog than his son.”

Killing of infants as soon as born, or while in their cradles, is by the Jews ascribed to one Lilith, which, R. Elias q says, is the name of a devil, which kills children; and indeed such an action is truly a diabolical one.

n Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 25. 1. o Antiq. l. 17. c. 3. p Saturnal. l. 2. c. 4. q Methurgemau in voce . Vid. Buxtorf. Lexicon Rab. in cadem voce & Synagog. Jud. c. 4. p. 80.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Slaughter of the Children.

      16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.   17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,   18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

      Here is, I. Herod’s resentment of the departure of the wise men. He waited long for their return; he hopes, though they be slow, they will be sure, and he shall crush this rival at his first appearing; but he hears, upon enquiry, that they are gone off another way, which increases his jealousy, and makes him suspect they are in the interest of this new King, which made him exceedingly wroth; and he is the more desperate and outrageous for his being disappointed. Note, Inveterate corruption swells the higher for the obstructions it meets with in a sinful pursuit.

      II. His political contrivance, notwithstanding this, to take off him that is born King of the Jews. If he could not reach him by a particular execution, he doubted not but to involve him in a general stroke, which, like the sword of war, should devour one as well as another. This would be sure work; and thus those that would destroy their own iniquity must be sure to destroy all their iniquities. Herod was an Edomite, enmity to Israel was bred in the bone with him. Doeg was an Edomite, who, for David’s sake, slew all the priests of the Lord. It was strange that Herod could find any so inhuman as to be employed in such a bloody and barbarous piece of work; but wicked hands never want wicked tools to work with. Little children have always been taken under the special protection, not only of human laws, but of human nature; yet these are sacrificed to the rage of this tyrant, under whom, as under Nero, innocence is the least security. Herod was, throughout his reign, a bloody man; it was not long before, that he destroyed the whole Sanhedrim, or bench of judges; but blood to the blood-thirsty is like drink to those in a dropsy; Quo plus sunt pot, plus sitiuntur aqu–The more they drink, the more thirsty they become. Herod was now about seventy years old, so that an infant, at this time under two years old, was not likely ever to give him any disturbance. Nor was he a man over fond of his own children, or of their preferment, having formerly slain two of his own sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, and his son Antipater after this, but five days before he himself died; so that it was purely to gratify his own brutish lusts of pride and cruelty that he did this. All is fish that comes to his net.

      Observe, What large measures he took, 1. As to time; He slew all from two years old and under. It is probable that the blessed Jesus was at this time not a year old; yet Herod took in all the infants under two years old, that he might be sure not to miss of his prey. He cares not how many heads fall, which he allows to be innocent, provided that escape not which he supposes to be guilty. 2. As to place; He kills all the male children, not only in Bethlehem, but in all the coasts thereof, in all the villages of that city. This was being overmuch wicked, Eccl. vii. 17. Hate, an unbridled wrath, armed with an unlawful power, often transports men to the most absurd and unreasonable instances of cruelty. It was no unrighteous thing for God to permit this; every life is forfeited to his justice as soon as it commences; that sin which entered by one man’s disobedience, introduced death with it; and we are not to suppose any thing more than that common guilt, we are not to suppose that these children were sinners above all that were in Israel, because they suffered such things. God’s judgments are a great deep. The diseases and deaths of little children are proofs of original sin. But we must look upon this murder of the infants under another character: it was their martyrdom. How early did persecution commence against Christ and his kingdom! Think ye that he came to send peace on the earth? No, but a sword, such a sword as this, Mat 10:34; Mat 10:35. A passive testimony was hereby given to the Lord Jesus. As when he was in the womb, he was witnessed to by a child’s leaping in the womb for joy at his approach, so now, at two years old, he had contemporary witnesses to him of the same age. They shed their blood for him, who afterwards shed his for them. These were the infantry of the noble army of martyrs. If these infants were thus baptized with blood, though it were their own, into the church triumphant, it could not be said but that, with what they got in heaven, they were abundantly recompensed for what they lost on earth. Out of the mouths of these babes and sucklings God did perfect his praise; otherwise, it is not good to the Almighty that he should thus afflict.

      The tradition of the Greek church (and we have it in the thiopic missal) is, that the number of the children slain was 14,000; but that is very absurd. I believe, if the births of the male children in the weekly bills were computed, there would not be found so many under two years old, in one of the most populous cities in the world, that was not near a fortieth part of it. But it is an instance of the vanity of tradition. It is strange that Josephus does not relate this story; but he wrote long after St. Matthew, and it is probable that he therefore would not relate it, because he would not so far countenance the Christian history; for he was a zealous Jew; but, to be sure, if it had not been true and well attested, he would have contested it. Macrobius, a heathen writer, tells us, that when Augustus Csar heard that Herod, among the children he order to be slain under two years old, slew his own son, he passed this jest upon him, That it was better to be Herod’s swine than his son. The usage of the country forbade him to kill a swine, but nothing could restrain him from killing his son. Some think that he had a young child at nurse in Bethlehem; others think that, through mistake, two events are confounded–the murder of the infants, and the murder of his son Antipater. But for the church of Rome to put the Holy Innocents, as they call them, into their calendar, and observe a day in memory of them, while they have so often, by their barbarous massacres, justified, and even out–one Herod, is but to do as their predecessors did, who built the tombs of the prophets, while they themselves filled up the same measure.

      Some observe another design of Providence in the murder of the infants. By all the prophecies of the Old Testament it appears that Bethlehem was the place, and this the time, of the Messiah’s nativity; now all the children of Bethlehem, born at this time, being murdered, and Jesus only escaping, none but Jesus could pretend to be the Messiah. Herod now thought he had baffled all the Old Testament prophecies, had defeated the indications of the star, and the devotions of the wise men, by ridding the country of this new King; having burnt the hive, he concludes he had killed the master bee; but God in heaven laughs at him, and has him in derision. Whatever crafty cruel devices are in men’s hearts, the counsel of the Lord shall stand.

      III. The fulfilling of scripture in this (Mat 2:17; Mat 2:18); Then was fulfilled that prophecy (Jer. xxxi. 15), A voice was heard in Ramah. See and adore the fulness of the scripture! That prediction was accomplished in Jeremiah’s time, when Nebuzaradan, after he had destroyed Jerusalem, brought all his prisoners to Ramah (Jer. xl. 1), and there disposed of them as he pleased, for the sword, or for captivity. Then was the cry in Ramah heard to Bethlehem (for those two cities, the one in Judah’s lot, and the other in Benjamin’s, were not far asunder); but now the prophecy is again fulfilled in the great sorrow that was for the death of these infants. The scripture was fulfilled,

      1. In the place of this mourning. The noise of it was heard from Bethlehem to Ramah; for Herod’s cruelty extended itself to all the coasts of Bethlehem, even into the lot of Benjamin, among the children of Rachel. Some think the country about Bethlehem was called Rachel, because there she died, and was buried. Rachel’s sepulchre was hard by Bethlehem, Gen 35:16; Gen 35:19; 1Sa 10:2. Rachel had her heart much set upon children: the son she died in travail of she called Benoni–the son of her sorrow. These mothers were like Rachel, lived near Rachel’s grave, and many of them descended from Rachel; and therefore their lamentations are elegantly represented by Rachel’s weeping.

      2. In the degree of this mourning. It was lamentation and mourning, and great mourning; all little enough to express the sense they had of this aggravated calamity. There was a great cry in Egypt when the first-born were slain, and so there was here when the youngest was slain; for whom we naturally have a particular tenderness. Here was a representation of this world we live in. We hear in it lamentation, and weeping, and mourning, and see the tears of the oppressed, some upon one account, and some upon another. Our ways lie through a vale of tears. This sorrow was so great, that they would not be comforted. They hardened themselves in it, and took a pleasure in their grief. Blessed be God, there is no occasion of grief in this world, no, not that which is supplied by sin itself, that will justify us in refusing to be comforted! They would not be comforted, because they are not, that is, they are not in the land of the living, are not as they were, in their mothers’ embraces. If, indeed, they were not, there might be some excuse for sorrowing as though we had no hope; but we know they are not lost, but gone before; if we forget that they are, we lose the best ground of our comfort, 1 Thess. iv. 13. Some make this grief of the Bethlehemites to be a judgment upon them for their contempt of Christ. They that would not rejoice for the birth of the Son of God, are justly made to weep for the death of their own sons; for they only wondered at the tidings the shepherds brought them, but did not welcome them.

      The quoting of this prophecy might serve to obviate an objection which some would make against Christ, upon this sad providence. “Can the Messiah, who is to be the Consolation of Israel, be introduced with all this lamentation?” Yes, for so it was foretold, and the scripture must be accomplished. And besides, if we look further into this prophecy, we shall find that the bitter weeping in Ramah was but a prologue to the greatest joy, for it follows, Thy work shall be rewarded, and there is hope in thy end. The worse things are, the sooner they will mend. Unto them a child was born, sufficient to repair their losses.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem ( ). The flight of Joseph was justified, for Herod was violently enraged ( ) that he had been mocked by the Magi, deluded in fact (). Vulgate illusus esset. Herod did not know, of course, how old the child was, but he took no chances and included all the little boys ( , masculine article) in Bethlehem two years old and under, perhaps fifteen or twenty. It is no surprise that Josephus makes no note of this small item in Herod’s chamber of horrors. It was another fulfilment of the prophecy in Jer 31:15. The quotation (2:18) seems to be from the Septuagint. It was originally written of the Babylonian captivity but it has a striking illustration in this case also. Macrobius (Sat. II. iv. II) notes that Augustus said that it was better to be Herod’s sow () than his son (), for the sow had a better chance of life.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The children [ ] . Male children, as is indicated by the masculine form of the article, and so Rev.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men,” (tote Herodes !don hot! enepaithe wise men) “Then when Herod realized that he had been mocked by the magi or wise men,” He did not, (being spiritually blind), see that it was God who had obstructed his purpose in locating and destroying the Christ, the Star of Bethlehem, 1Co 2:14; 2Co 4:3-4.

2) “Was exceeding wroth,” (ethumothe lian) “Was angered exceedingly,” maddened with anger, nigh insane in fury.

3) “And sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem,” (kai apostellas anaeilen pantas tous paidas tous en Bethleem) “And sent (mandated or decreed) and killed all the boy children or small male children in Bethlehem;” In savage fury he ordered all the young male children in the Bethlehem area massacred.

4) “And in all the coasts thereof,” (kai en pasai tois horiois autes) “And in all the districts or suburbs of it,” of Bethlehem, to be certain that he got the child Jesus. How ferocious, crafty, and cruel.

5) “From two years of age and under,” (apo dietous kai katotero) “From two years of age and under;” It may therefore here be concluded that general reports confirmed that Jesus had been born there some two years before.

6) “According to the time,” (kata to chronon) “According to the point of time;” To be certain that he liquidated this purported new royal child however his decree took all male children one hour to two years of age.

7) “Which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.” (ho ekribosen para ron magon) “At which he specifically inquired of the magi or wise men,” regarding how long it had been since the star had appeared and revealed to them in the east that the Messiah king had been born.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

16. Then Herod when he saw Matthew speaks according to what Herod felt and thought about the matter. He believed that the Magi had deceived him, because they did not choose to take part in his wicked cruelty. He was rather taken in his own trickery, — in his base pretense, that he too intended to pay homage to the new King.

Josephus makes no mention of this history. The only writer who mentions it is Macrobius, in the Second Book of his Saturnalia, where, relating the jokes and taunts of Augustus, he says: When he heard that, by Herod’s command, the children in Syria under two years of age had been slain, and that his own son had been slain among the crowd, “I would rather,” said he, “have been Herod’s hog than his son.” But the authority of Matthew alone is abundantly sufficient for us. Josephus certainly ought not to have passed over a crime so worthy of being put on record. But there is the less reason to wonder that he says nothing about the infants; for he passes lightly over, and expresses in obscure language, an instance of Herod’s cruelty not less shocking, which took place about the same time, when he put to death all the Judges, who were called the Sanhedrim, that hardly a remnant might remain of the stock of David. It was the same dread, I have no doubt, that impelled him to both of these murders.

There is some uncertainty about the date. (211) Matthew says, that they were slain from two years old and under, according to the time which he had inquired at the Magi: from which we may infer that Christ had then reached that age, or at least was not far from being two years old. Some go farther, and conclude that Christ was about that age at the time when the Magi came. But I contend that the one does not follow from the other. With what terror Herod was seized when the report was widely spread about a new king who had been borne, (212) we have lately seen. Fear prevented him at that time from employing a traitor, in a secret manner, to make an investigation. (213) There is no reason to wonder that he was restrained, for some time, from the commission of a butchery so hateful and shocking, particularly while the report about the arrival of the Magi was still recent. It is certainly probable, that he revolved the crime in his mind, but delayed it till a convenient opportunity should occur. It is even possible, that he first murdered the Judges, in order to deprive the people of their leaders, and thus to compel them to look upon the crime as one for which there was no remedy. (214)

We may now conclude it to be a frivolous argument, on which those persons rest, who argue, that Christ was two years old when he was worshipped by the Magi, because, according to the time when the star appeared, Herod slew the children who were a little below two years old. Such persons take for granted, without any proper ground, that the star did not appear till after that the Virgin had brought forth her child. It is far more probable, that they had been warned early, and that they undertook the journey close upon the time of the birth of Christ, that they might see the child when lately born, in the cradle, or in his mother’s lap. It is a very childish imagination that, because they came from an unknown country, and almost from another world, they had spent about two years on the road. The conjectures stated by Osiander (215) are too absurd to need refutation.

But there is no inconsistency in the thread of the story which I propose, — that the Magi came when the period of child-bearing was not yet over, and inquired after a king who had been born, not after one who was already two years old; that, after they had returned to their own country, Joseph fled by night, but still in passing discharged a pious duty at Jerusalem, (for in so populous a city, where there was a constant influx of strangers from every quarter, he might be secure from danger;) that, after he had departed to Egypt, Herod began to think seriously about his own danger, and the ulcer of revenge, which he had nourished in his heart for more than a year and half, at length broke out. The adverb then ( τότε) does not always denote in Scripture uninterrupted time, (216) but frequently occurs, when there is a great distance between the events.

(211) “ Toutefois on ne sait pas certainement si ce fut en mesme temps.” — “However, it is not known certainly if it was at the same time.”

(212) “ Quand les premieres nouvelles vindrent de la naissance du nouveau Roy, et que le bruit en commenca a courir;” — “when the first news arrived of the birth of the new King, and when the noise about it began to spread.”

(213) “ La crainte l’empescha lors d’envoyer secretement quelque traistre pour espier comme tout alloit;” — “fear prevented him at that time from employing some traitor to spy how all went.”

(214) “ Et pent estre qu’il a premierement mis a mort les Juges, afin qu’apres avoir oste au poure peuple ses conducteurs, il peust sans contredit luy tenir le pie sui la gorge, et en faire a son plaisir.” — “And perhaps he first put the Judges to death, that, after having deprived the wretched people of their leaders, he might without opposition, set his foot on their throat, and do with them at his pleasure.”

(215) Andrew Osiander, (grandfather of Dr Andrew Osiander, a Lutheran divine,) author of several works which gained him not a little celebrity, among which is Harmonia Evangelica — Ed.

(216) “ Sans qu’il y ait rien entre-deux;” — “without there being anything between the two,”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(16) The fact of the slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem is not mentioned by Josephus, or by any other writer, and has on that ground been called in question. It is admitted, however, on all hands, that it was an act every way in harmony with Herods character. Tormented with incurable disease, and yet more incurable suspicion; so fiendish in his cruelty, that he gave orders for the execution of many of the leading men of Juda immediately upon his own death, that there might at least be some genuine mourning at his funeral; making fresh wills, according to the passing passion of the moment; adding, as his last act, the death of yet another son, Antipater, to those of the two sons of Mariamne (so that Augustus was reported to have said that it was better to be Herods swine than son),it might well be that he gave such a command as this among the cruel and reckless acts of the last months of his life. Nor need we wonder that the act was not recorded elsewhere. The population of Bethlehem could hardly have been more than 2,000, and the number of children under two years of age in that number would be between twenty and thirty. The cruelty of such an act would naturally impress itself on the local memory, from which, directly or indirectly, the Gospel record was derived, and yet escape the notice of an historian writing eighty or ninety years afterwards of the wars and court history of the period. The secrecy which marked the earlier part of Herods scheme (Mat. 2:7) would extend naturally, as far as Jerusalem was concerned, to its execution.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13. SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS, AND RETURN FROM EGYPT, 16-23.

16. Mocked Slighted and deceived. Wroth Angry. Slew Herod believed the prophecy, for he ordered the sacred records to be consulted, with the expectation that they would tell, and tell truly, where the Messiah would be born. He believed the Scripture; he believed in the Messiah. But what a believer! He imagined that he could kill the predicted Messiah, and so defeat the God of ages! Such idiots may the most crafty men make of themselves, when blinded by ambition. All the children Male children. Many imagine that the number was immense; but the number of male children under two years old in a small village and its adjacent country borders could not be large. Coasts The original word signifies not sea coasts, but suburbs, land borders.

There is no force in the modern objection to the truth of the history of the massacre of the infants, derived from the fact that no secular historian of that day mentions it. Amid the enormous slaughters perpetrated by this monster, the killing of a few children in a country village would hardly be thought worthy of notice by any pagan author. See our remarks on Herod in our notes upon Mat 2:1.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the Magi, was extremely angry, and sent forth, and slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had exactly learned of the Magi.’

Meanwhile Herod was livid with anger. The impossible had happened, and it had become apparent that those lily-livered Magi had deceived him. They had basically cocked a snook at him. And he immediately gave the command that all male children in Bethlehem and its surrounds who were of two years old and under should be put to death at once without delay. No quarter was to be shown. And in accordance with his command all male children within his definition were sought out, and were put to death. It was not, however, a large massacre by his standards, probably encompassing around twenty children. And the reason for his choice of age is then given. It was according to the time since the star had first appeared, in accord with the information he had been given by the Magi. How wise he had been not to leave anything to chance.

We can only cringe at the thought of the deaths of these children, but in ancient warfare children were killed indiscriminately without a second thought. It would not therefore have been looked at with quite the same eyes as we look at it, except by the people involved. People would simply have said when they heard of it, ‘How typical of Herod’. But a further thought needs to be born in mind. This purposeless killing was precisely because God was seeking to do good to the world. God did not cause the killing. It arose because He had sent His Son to die to save men and women. It was actually caused by a man who was so evil that God’s very act in sending a Saviour resulted in the killing.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

v. 16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

The evangelist, after his brief digression, returns to his story proper. Herod saw that, from his standpoint, he had been outwitted, made a fool of, by the Magi. And when he was certain that they were not going to retrace their steps to Jerusalem, to report what they had found at Bethlehem, he was enraged, extremely incensed with an unreasonable rage. This wrath demanded an outlet, it could be quenched only in blood. Herod sent executioners. to Bethlehem with the command to kill all children that were to be found in the village proper and in its entire vicinity, the rural district surrounding the town. Not one was spared, not even, according to an ancient report, his own son. In fixing the age of his victims, he made use of the information given him by the Magi, probably extending the time either way in order to make sure that none escaped. Herod would not be too scrupulous: from one hour to two years old, it mattered not; if anything, it insured him an ample margin either way

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 2:16. Then Herod, when he saw, &c. Perceiving that he was mocked by the Magislew all the childrenentering on the second year and under, according to the time which he had exactly learned, &c. Knatchbull. The word , in the original, rendered mocked, signifies properly to be played with, and well expresses the view in which the pride of Herod taught him to regard this action, as if it were intended to expose him to the derision of his subjects, and to treat him as a child, rather than as a prince of so great experience and renown. Haman’s rage against Mordecai is expressed by the LXX in the same terms as Herod’s anger is here. See Est 3:5; Est 5:9. It is probable that Herod in his passion ordered the slaughter of the infants, as soon as he perceived that he was disappointed in his expectation of the return of the wise men; lest otherwise the child, of whom he was so jealous, might be removed: and, as his cruelty extended even to those who had entered on the second year, which is expressly said to be according to the time of which he had got exact information from the sages; it must be natural hence to conclude, that it was not till some considerable time after the birth of Christ that he was visited by the wise men; even though we should allow the first appearance of the star to have been, as some suppose, about the time of Christ’s conception. The truth is, it is very difficult to determine the exact period of time when the wise men paid their visit to Christ; though it appears to me most probable from the 11th verse that it was at the time of his nativity. See Sir Norton Knatchbull, and Bedford’s Chronology, p. 740. The reader willfind, at the end of Bishop Chandler’s Vindication of his Defence, a piece which well deserves his perusal, intitled, The Slaughter of the Children in Bethlehem, as an historical Fact in St. Matthew’s Gospel, vindicated, &c.

Dr. Campbell reads, all the children, all the male children, . I do not deny, says he, that there may be instances wherein the Greek term , like the other , may mean children in general .The phrase, both in Hebrew and in Greek, is, the sons of Israel, which our translators render the children of Israel, as nobody doubts that the whole posterity is meant. We address an audience of men and women by the title brethren; and under the denomination all men, the whole species is included. But in such examples, the universality of the application is either previously known from common usage, or is manifest from the subject or occasion. Where this cannot be said, the words ought to be strictly interpreted. Add to this, 1st, That the historian seems here purposely to have changed the term , which is used for child no less than nine times in this chapter; as that word, being neuter, and admitting only the neuter article, was not fit for marking the distinction of sexes; and to have adopted a term which he nowhere else employs for infants, though frequently for men-servants, and once for youths or boys: 2nd, That the reason of the thing points to the interpretation that I have given. It made no more for Herod’s purpose to destroy female children, than to massacre grown men and women; and, tyrant though he was, that he meant to go no farther than, in his way of judging, his own securityrendered expedient, is evident from the instructions which he gave to his emissaries, in regard to the age of the infants to be sacrificed to his jealousy, that they might not exceed such an age, nor be under such another.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 2:16 . ] mocked , made a fool of. Sophocles, Ant . 794; Lucian, Trag . 331; Jacobs, ad Anthol . XI. p. 108; Luk 18:32 ; and frequently in N. T., LXX., and Apocrypha. The words are from Herod’s point of view.

] Whether this is to be taken as masculine, a bienni, from two years onwards (Syr., Ar., Erasmus, Beza, Bengel, Fritzsche, Bleek), or as neuter, a bimatu, from the age of two years (Vulg., Castalio, Calvin, Er. Schmid, Rosenmller, Gratz), is not determined by the similar passages, Num 1:3 ; Num 20:29 ; Num 3 Esdr. Mat 8:1 ; 1Ch 27:23 ; 2Ch 31:16 . It is in favour, however, of the latter view, that although several are spoken of, yet the singular always stands (not ); so likewise the analogy of , Dem. 1135. 4; Aesch. in Ctes . 122; , Arist. H. A. v. 14. Comp. likewise Arist. H. A. ii. 1, and , Plat. Legg . vii. p. 794 A.

] (beginning) from two years old and (continuing) downwards . The opposite expression is: (Num 1:3 ; 2Ch 31:16 ). The boys of two years old and younger, in order the more unfailingly to attain his purpose.

] he had obtained precise knowledge (Mat 2:7 ). He had therefore ascertained from the Magi that, agreeably to the time of the appearance of the star, the child could not be more than two years old at the most.

.] The houses and courts outside of Bethlehem which yet belonged to its borders.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1281
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INFANTS

Mat 2:16; Mat 2:18. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

WHILST ungodly men are perpetrating every species of wickedness, the language of their hearts, as interpreted by God himself, is this: The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth [Note: Eze 8:12; Eze 9:9.]. A similar thought is apt to arise in the heart, when our trials are multiplied, and relief is not speedily afforded us. It was in this way that the Israelites at Massah, when destitute of water, vented their murmurs: this was their atheistical inquiry; Is the Lord amongst us or not [Note: Exo 7:7.]? Even godly persons, under violent temptation, are sometimes ready to ask, Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies [Note: Psa 77:9.]? But a diligent attention to the Scriptures will fortify us against any such absurd conclusions. From them we shall learn, that however inattentive God may appear to be to the concerns of men, he directs, limits, and overrules all their actions, for the promotion of his own glory. Scarcely on any occasion should we have expected his interposition, more than for the prevention of that murderous edict, whereby all the infants of Bethlehem and the adjacent country were destroyed. Yet God saw fit to permit it; and interfered no further than was necessary for the fulfilling of his own word, and the accomplishing of his own eternal purpose.

Let us contemplate,

I.

The fact recorded

A more strange occurrence can scarcely be conceived. We wonder that any human being should be invested with such power, as to cause, by his own arbitrary mandate, the slaughter of so many innocent persons. We wonder still more, that, supposing this authority to be delegated to any one, there should be found agents to carry such an inhuman edict into execution. But most of all do we wonder, that a creature endued with reason should be capable of issuing such an order as Herod did on this occasion. But let us trace this action to its source: let us inquire into the principle from which this unparalleled barbarity proceeded

[The murderous purpose originated in jealousy. Herod possibly had heard of the birth of Jesus, previous to the arrival of the Wise Men: but that was the circumstance which put him upon making inquiries into the pretensions of this newborn infant. From them he learned, that a star or meteor had appeared to them in the East, and that they, either from revelation or from the traditionary prophecy of Balaam, had been led to interpret the appearance of that star as an intimation, that He who was to reign over the Jews was now born into the world. He was also informed by them, that they had come on purpose to pay him the homage which was due to such an exalted character. Upon this, Herod summoned all the chief priests and scribes, that he might learn from them what the prophets had declared respecting the place of their Messiahs nativity: and on understanding that Bethlehem was the place destined to that honour, he sent the Wise Men thither, and ordered them, when they had found the child, to come and give him information respecting him. This order he grounded upon a pretended desire to honour Christ; but with a secret determination to destroy him: for he concluded, that Christ was to have a temporal dominion; and that, if suffered to live, he would wrest the kingdom out of his hands. But such a rival he could not endure: and hence arose the secret purpose to destroy him.

But though jealousy first prompted him to form the murderous purpose, with respect to his supposed rival, it was offended pride that caused it to be extended to all the children around Bethlehem. The Wise Men, being warned by God of Herods purpose, returned no more to him: at this Herod was indignant: he conceived himself slighted and despised; but he was determined not to be disappointed of his desire; and therefore, to secure his object, he gave orders that all infants near the age of Jesus, and within the neighbourhood of the place where he was born, should be massacred without distinction.

What an amazing ascendant must these principles have over the heart of man! Well may it be said, that jealousy is cruel as the grave [Note: Son 8:6.]: nor indeed is pride less cruel, when its wounded feelings have scope for exercise. This we see in the two sons of Jacob, who, on account of their sister having been defiled by the Prince of Shechem, slew every male in the city: and, when reproved for their cruelty, they shewed, in their vindication of themselves, from whence that cruelty had proceeded: Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot [Note: Gen 34:31.]?;

Happy would it have been for the world, if such dispositions and conduct had been altogether banished by the Gospel of Christ: but the human heart is the same in every age and place: we still see that the love of power is a predominant principle in the mind of man; that where it is suffered to gain an ascendency, it will leave no means untried for the accomplishment of its ends; and that, if the more lenient methods of deceit and treachery will not succeed, it will wade through seas of blood to the attainment of its object: the cries of thousands and tens of thousands will not divert it from its purpose: nor will any thing but the utter extinction of a rival satisfy its blood-thirsty appetite [Note: Written in Feb. 1809, when the British army had been forced to leave Spain under the merciless dominion of Buonaparte.].

We must not however forget, that the same evil principles are in our own hearts: and, if we will only call to mind the irritation which we have felt on some particular occasions, we shall see reason to be thankful to God, who has kept us from carrying into execution all that our offended pride might have prompted us to effect.]
Before we proceed to make any practical remarks upon this fact, it will be proper to notice,

II.

The prophecy accomplished by it

The New Testament writers sometimes appeal to the prophecies of the Old Testament, as direct proofs of what they assert, and sometimes in a more lax way of accommodation only. It is in this latter way, we apprehend, that the prophecy before us is adduced [Note: Jer 31:15-17.]? In its primary meaning, it represented the Jews as collected at Rama, for the purpose of being carried into captivity to Babylon [Note: Jer 40:1.]; and Rachel (who had about eleven hundred years before been buried near that place [Note: Gen 35:19.]) as weeping over the disconsolate state of her posterity. The Evangelist beautifully applies the same figure to the slaughter of the children which took place at Bethlehem, which also was near to Rachels tomb; and, in this view, he speaks of the prophecy as again accomplished. This he might well do: for who can conceive the distress which that event occasioned?

[The murderous bands could not stop to see, whether, in every instance, the wounds they had inflicted had actually destroyed life: they must proceed rapidly in their work, lest any of the children should be carried off or concealed: and what anguish must the cries of so many children, (probably some thousands,) writhing in the agonies of death, in agonies protracted by the kind solicitude of their parents, have produced in the bosoms of their bereaved mothers! No language can paint, no imagination conceive, the horrors of that day. We may use the terms, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning; but we cannot affix to them any adequate ideas, or realize, in any just degree, that awful scene ]

We cannot but see from hence,
1.

How early our Lords sufferings began

[Scarcely was he born, before his life was sought, and he was forced to be carried an exile to the country which of all others had been most hostile to his progenitors. And, after the death of Herod, he was forced, for his security, to take up his abode in a town which fixed a stigma upon him to his latest hour [Note: Joh 1:46; Joh 7:52.]. These were, indeed, only the beginnings of his sorrows: but they may well reconcile his followers to any privations or reproaches which they may be called to endure for his sake. If for us he became a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, let us cheerfully bear our cross for him, and willingly suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together ]

2.

How vain are any attempts of man to counteract the designs of God

[Herod foolishly thought to defeat the purposes of heaven; but God held him in derision, and laughed him to scorn [Note: Psa 2:1-6.]. God knew his murderous plans, and warned the parents of our Lord to escape his fury; yea, and provided too for their journey and support in Egypt, by the offerings which the Wise Men had just before presented to the new-born King. Herod, to secure his purpose, ordered, not the children of Bethlehem only, but of all the neighbouring country; and not of one year old only, but all under two years old, to be massacred: but his attempts were vain; and instead of frustrating the designs of Heaven, he unwittingly fulfilled them; occasioning, by this very act, no less than three prophecies to be accomplished [Note: ver. 15, 17, 23. He still further confirmed the Messiahship of Jesus, by leading all the Jewish Sanhedrim to declare, that Bethlehem was to be the place of his nativity, ver. 46.]. Thus it is with all who set themselves against God: they may shew their malignity, but they cannot counteract his gracious designs. Many are the devices in mens hearts; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand [Note: Pro 19:21.]. The wrath of man as far as it is permitted to be exercised shall praise him; and the remainder of that wrath shall he restrain [Note: Psa 76:10.]. We never need, therefore, to be afraid of man; for, if we commit our way unto the Lord, he will be our shield and buckler; and, if He be for us, we may triumphantly ask, Who can be against us [Note: Rom 8:31.]?]

3.

How certainly will there be a day of future retribution

[Can it be, that such an inhuman monster should never meet with any just recompence for his deeds? The mind revolts at the idea. If there be a God that governs the world, there must be a period when the present inequalities of his government shall be done away, and the equity of his dispensations be made apparent. Hence the day of judgment is in Scripture called, The day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God [Note: Rom 2:5.]: and we are told, that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble us: and to us who are troubled, rest [Note: 2Th 1:6-7.]. Let us then act in reference to that day: whether exalted and at ease, or depressed and persecuted, let us look to that day, when our happiness or misery shall be for ever fixed. Let us dread prosperity, if it divert our attention from a future state; and let us welcome adversity, if it be the means of bringing us nearer unto God. The infants now have no cause to regret that they were called to such early martyrdom: and it is highly probable, that many of their parents have since found reason to give thanks to God for the weight of sorrow that then oppressed them. But the proud oppressor, who can reflect on his state without shuddering? how will he feel, when he shall stand at the tribunal of that very Jesus, whom, with such hypocrisy and cruelty, he laboured to destroy? O that, whenever tempted to sin, we may think of the account which we must one day give; and, whenever called to suffer, may look with Moses to the recompence of the reward!]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Here is opened the mystery of iniquity which lay brooding in the heart of Herod, all the while he put on the apparent regard he proposed to shew to the new born King. But, can the imagination form an idea so horrid, as that of the destruction of such a number of little harmless children, in order to he sure of the One? Alas! what is the human heart, in a state of unrenewed nature! But, Reader, be not offended. Your heart, my heart, every man’s heart by nature is the same. And we read this account of Herod to little profit, if we do not see in him the portrait of every son and daughter of Adam, by the fall. For there can be no difference in the same nature, but what sovereign grace hath wrought. What one man’s nature hath done, every man’s nature is capable of doing; yea, and would do, if the same corresponding causes, temptations, and opportunities, led to it, and grace did not restrain. Oh! who shall calculate, who shall tell, to what a desperate state of wickedness the whole nature of man is fallen, by the original apostasy of our first father? Reader! do you believe this? I do from my very heart. And I bless GOD the HOLY GHOST for the merciful discovery. For never should I have known the want of salvation, neither rightly valued that salvation, but for this divine teaching. Never should I have loved thee, or wouldest thou have been so endeared to my soul, blessed, precious LORD JESUS, as thou now art, had not God the HOLY GHOST, as thou didst promise concerning him, convinced me of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Joh 16:8-11 ; Jer 17:9 ; 2Ki 8:11-13 .

Concerning the murder of those babes: if the Reader will turn to Jer 31:15-40 ; he will, I think, behold the sweet consolation that is there pointed out in CHRIST, as the everlasting remedy to this, and all other bereaving providences. And in relation to the infants themselves; they were only removed from the evil to come. Had they lived to old age, they would have lived to have seen the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, which the Lord Jesus so mournfully foretold, Mat 20:4 ; Mar 13 ; Luk 21 when they would have said; blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. If those sweet babes who died for CHRIST died also in CHRIST; were they not such as John heard a voice from heaven concerning, saying, blessed are the dead which die in the LORD, Rev 14:13 . And is it not said, precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psa 116:15 . And may we not without violence to the words suppose, that these little ones of CHRIST’S fold, were among that holy army John saw on Mount Zion, when he said, I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having his FATHER’S name written in their foreheads. See Rev 14:1-5 . See also 1Th 4:13-18 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 5

Second Causes Not Sufficient Physical Force Weaker Than Moral Angel Ministries Afraid of Whole Families Goodness Cannot Die

Prayer

Almighty God, thy way is very wonderful, and we cannot find it out; thou dost justify thyself in righteousness and in mercy, notwithstanding our sore perplexity and the vexation of our soul in time of trouble. Thou dost send men on strange errands, thy requests are bold; thou dost lay thine hand upon our life, and require it as our gift. Who can restrain thee? Who can mitigate thy severity? Who can answer thy great thunder? What sword have we that can reply to thy lightning? Teach us that our place is to obey, to receive the will from heaven, and with all patience and loving industry to do it every whit. How can we do so? We are of yesterday, and know nothing; we mistake the near for the precious and the great; we do not allow for distance and colour in the proportion of things, so we are constantly mistaking that which is in our hand as being greater and better than that which is afar off. We consult impatient temper; we are the slaves of an imperfect and depraved will; a thousand mean and treacherous appetites besiege the very centre and source of our best life how then can we obey? This is of the Lord’s doing: we are saved by grace and not by work; this is not an offering of our own; it is the outworking of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. We do not marvel now that we must be born again; we bless thee for this gospel of regeneration, which is the gospel of the heart of thy Son, for the laver of regeneration is filled with nothing less than the blood of the heart of Christ. To no baptismal water do we come, but to a laver and fountain of regenerating blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, thy Son, cleanseth from all sin. We would test its power; we would see our sin cleansed by its efficacy; we are weary of sin: it tires those whom for a moment it pleases the fire of wickedness goes out and leaves a death-like cold behind it. We would therefore turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart; we would live in the Lord, for the Lord would we live, our delight would be in thy testimonies, and our satisfaction in thy service.

Thou hast appointed unto us but a few days wherein to live. Our life is as a dying smoke, or as a wind that flieth speedily away and which none can find. We are like water spilled upon the ground which cannot be gathered up. Few and evil are the days of thy servants; our life is but a span; we see the meanness of its duration and the poverty of its own resources, yet are we enslaved by fascinations which throw their spell upon us every day. We would that God would deliver us from all these bondages, and cause us to enter into the wide and glorious liberty of his Son. That we should ever have prayed this prayer is the miracle of our life, for we were dead in trespasses and sin, and our soul’s delight was in the gardens forbidden, and in the trees that are interdicted, but now we are alive in Christ, and our soul’s desire is to drink of the living stream, to pluck of the tree of life, and to do God’s will with hearty sincerity, with humble devoutness, with reverence that itself is worship.

Appoint unto us our task and give us strength to fulfil it all. When the burden is very heavy, do not lessen the load, but increase the strength. When the hill is very high and the wind is very bleak, and we are ill able to bear it, reduce nothing of the severity of the discipline, but increase in us that loving patience, that high hope, that gentle trust, which accepts everything at thine hand as right and wise and good.

Thou art teaching us many lessons difficult to learn, hard to apply, yet which in the application turn to sweet gospels, even to resurrections and great deliverances. Thou dost take away the pride of our life, the delight of our eyes, the song of oar souls. Thou dost make us poor indeed: thou sendest a bitter cold upon us, under which we shiver and tremble with agony: thou dost distress us by many troubles, thou wilt not allow us to keep the dear child it is plucked like an unopened bud. When thou dost see us in the midst of our joy thou dost trouble our cup with bitterness as for our fig-tree, thou dost bark it and leave it naked as for our one lamb, its loneliness is no protection against thy judgment; thou dost take it away in the night time, and in the morning we are visited with infinite distress.

This is the life we live: we sing and curse and mourn and reproach, and there is no prayer found upon our lips, yet dost thou send unto us messages from heaven, yea, last of all thou didst send thy Son, and he gave himself for us. We have been touched by the pathos of the cross, we have been moved by the entreaties of the dying Christ, we have found in him our one and only priest now we would live in him, and for him and to him, and would be bound to his kingdom as willing and loving slaves. Amen.

Mat 2:16-23 .

16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men (mocked of God, rather) was exceeding wroth, and sent forth (murderers), and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts (suburbs or precincts) thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

17. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,

18. In Rama (which lay on the way to Babylon) was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel (the progenetrix of Israel) weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

19. But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.

20. Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel (the country is divinely named; the particular town was humanly selected); for they are dead which sought the young child’s life (literally the young child’s soul).

21. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

22. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign (under the inferior title of Ethnarch) in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither; notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:

23: And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a. Nazarene (mean and. contemptible, so the root of the word signifies.)

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men” yet the wise men did not mock him at all! When will people get away from the region of secondary causes, and understand that life has a divine centre, and that all things are governed from the throne of heaven? It is not only a philosophical mistake to drop into second causes for the purpose of finding the origin of our miseries, it sometimes, yea often, becomes a practical mischief, a sore and terrible disaster of a personal and social kind. Therefore with great urgency would I drive men away from secondary lines and intermediate causes, to the great cause of all God, and King, and Lord, and Christ. Herod was mocked of God: he was not mocked of the Persian sages: they were not unwilling to ally themselves with him, so far as they were personally concerned, if they could contribute aught to his intelligence or to the carrying out of his expressed purpose to “worship” the Child of whom they themselves were in quest. Herod was mocked, vexed from heaven, troubled from the centre of things. The fog that, fell upon his eyes came downwards, not upwards, it was a blinding mist from him who sends upon men delusions as well as revelations.

We have ourselves been mocked of God, and we have taken vengeance upon human instrumentalities. If we insist upon having our own way, there is a point at which God says, “Take it, and with it take the consequences.” If we resolutely and impatiently say, “We will find success along this line and no other,” God may say to us, “Proceed, and find what you can.” And at the end of that line, what have we found? A great rock, a thousand feet thick, and God has said, “You may find success if you will thrust your hand through that granite.” So we have been mocked. We have determined to proceed along a certain course, notwithstanding the expostulations of heaven, and having gone mile after mile, what have we found at the end of the course? A great furnace, and God has said to us with mocking laughter, that hast shaken the skies, “Your success is in the middle of that furnace: put your hand right into the centre and take it,” knowing that he who puts his hand in there takes it out no more.

In proportion, therefore, as we are mocked and vexed, as we come back from the wilderness, bringing with us nothing but the wind, as we return from the mountains bringing with us nothing but a sense of perplexity, it becomes us to ask serious questions about our failure. Who mocked us? Not men, not women we were laughed at from heaven. There is no passage of Scripture which has upon me so weird an effect as that which says that God will mock at our calamity, and laugh when our fear cometh. We have seen his tears they baptized Jerusalem, they have fallen in gracious showers upon the graves that hold our heart’s treasure, but we have never heard his laugh. There is a human laughter that turns us cold God forbid that we should ever hear our divine Father’s laughter, when the great fire-waves swell around us and all heaven seems to be pleased with the discomfiture of our souls.

When Herod saw that he was mocked of the wise men, what did he? Let us suppose that the passage is interrupted at that point and that we are required to continue the story. Now let us set our wits to work to complete the sentence which begins with “When Herod saw that he was mocked of the wise men.” Let me suggest this continuation He saw a religious mystery in this matter: he said, “This is not the doing of the wise men, there is a secret above and behind and around this, which I have not yet penetrated: I am troubled, but it is with religious perplexity. I will fall down upon my knees, I will outstretch mine arms in prayer, and will cry mightily to God to visit me in this crisis of my intellectual distress and moral consternation.” Let me now turn and see how far my conjecture is right. “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew.” The power of wickedness is physical, the power of goodness is moral. Wickedness says, “A sword;” goodness says, “A pen.”

We know that this narrative is true in the case of Herod, because it is made true every day in our own experience. When we are vexed and mocked and disappointed, we do exactly what Herod did we grow exceeding wroth, and slay. You need not consult the ancient historians to know whether Herod really did this work or not, when we ourselves are doing it every day of our vexation and disappointment. We all play the fool under such visitations. Not unless we are regenerated by God the Holy Ghost and cleansed through and through by the atoning blood do we rise to the high dignity and grandeur of moral dominion and spiritual conquest.

There are two victories possible to us, the one is physical, the other is a moral. I want this child to attend public worship. I say to the child, “You must: if you refuse I will scourge you until you go to church. I am older, I am stronger than you are, and you shall feel the supremacy of my age and the oppressiveness of my strength. To church I will make you go.” I have succeeded, the child is in the church to-day. The child is here, but not here. By a perverse will the child is turning this church into a desecrated place. The child’s will is not here, nor is the child’s love present with us: our prayers have been burdensome, and God’s own word has lost its music, because of the constraint under which that attendance has been enforced.

Let me take the case of the child from another point. I have been dwelling upon the advantages of going to church: I have been speaking about God and God’s love, Christ and Christ’s cross, about the tender music and the beautiful word and the loving gospel, and I have said to the child, “I should like you to go: it would make my heart glad if you did go I only ask you, I do not force you.” And the child has said, “Certainly I will go; show me the way, I should be glad to go.” The child is here, every blood-drop in his heart is here, his eyes are rounding into a great wonder, and his breast heaving with an unusual but most glad emotion. Which is the conquest? The conquests of force exhaust themselves and perish in ignominious failure, the conquests of love grow and increase with the processes of time.

When Herod saw that he was mocked of the wise men, he was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem. The power of badness is destructive, the power of goodness is preservative. We need direction in the quality and uses of strength. It is easy to destroy: even a beast can crush a flower, but no angel in all the heavens can reset the broken joint. We mistake destructiveness as a sign of power. What power there is in the act of destructiveness is of the lowest and coarsest quality. You cannot drive evil out of men by any merely negative and destructive process. If you call out “Repent,” you must immediately follow the word with “For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The call to repentance is in a sense a negative call, the announcement that the kingdom of heaven is at hand is the positive and affirmative call, which tends to the upfilling of the emptied heart with the better dominion, the sanctuary from heaven. You may cut down all the weeds in your garden, but if you do not attend to that garden, putting in the place of that which was noxious that which is useful, the old roots will re-assert themselves and your garden will become a scene of confusion. Jesus does not destroy without creating. If we suppress anything we do not believe in, we ought to set up in its place influences of a higher and nobler kind. It is no use for you, my friends, to empty the public-house unless you open some other place that shall attract within its better limits those whom you have expelled. It is of no use for you to drive the devil out of a man unless you have something to put into the man. That devil will wander about and will return and bring with him seven worse than himself, and the end of the man will be worse than the beginning.

“Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, mourning, lamentation, weeping,” distress night and day, the cry of pain and the moan of agony. The result of selfishness is human distress, the result of goodness is good-will towards men. See then what the world would come to under a selfish rulership. Selfish rulership says, “If I cannot have my own way easily, I will have it at all costs and hazards.” Selfish rulership lifts up its sword and says, “Make way.” Selfish rulership will purchase its own ends at any cost of mourning, lamentation, and weeping. Thus the bad man seems to succeed more than the good man; his way is rougher, his manners are ruder, he destroys, he does not create, and it is always easier to pull down than to build up. Jesus Christ proceeds slowly because of the depth and vitality and permanence of his work. It is easier to curse than to pray. Under Herod the world would become a scene of selfish triumph; under Christ it would become a family united by tenderest bonds, made holy by mutual and sympathetic love, and sacred by the exercise of those obligations which elevate and ennoble human nature. I ask you, therefore, to-day, as the end of this part of the exposition who is to be king, Herod or Christ, violence or persuasion, force or love, selfishness or beneficence? The choice is sharp, the division is distinct: he who would seek to muddle and confuse these distinctions, is not the friend of progress, he is the victim of a mischievous pedantry. The world can only be under one of two kings, God mammon, Christ Herod, beneficence selfishness. Choose ye; put high his banner over your life and let it float so that men can see it from afar.

In the next paragraph of our text we find the appearance of an angel of the Lord in a dream. The angels are ever mindful of the good. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be the heirs of salvation?” You say you have had no experience of angel ministry: be careful what you say, lest you narrow yourselves unduly by the mere letter, and miss the poetry and grandeur of your life. You say you are bound by things visible and palpable, and beyond those things do not venture to go. I am not asking you to venture to go any distance beyond those limitations, but I am asking you to allow God the power to come to you by any one of a series of innumerable ministries. You must not “limit the Holy One of Israel.” The question is not, What can I do? It is, What can God do?

I could imagine a little boy with his arithmetic saying that all things that could be reckoned up, in space and in quantity, were reckonable upon the basis of his book of figures. He begins and ends with the multiplication table; he says the multiplication table ends at twelve times twelve, and beyond that he will never go. He is not going to be wise above what is written: if any man should venture to ask him how many are thirteen times thirteen, he would shudder with arithmetical aversion, and reply that thirteen times thirteen was not to be found in the multiplication table. Would he be right? He would be as far wrong as possible! Thirteen times thirteen is as certainly in the multiplication table as twice one or five times five. He will find that out by-and-by. He thinks he is keeping himself within due limits and must not transgress certain boundaries, when he says the table ends at twelve times twelve. He is going to be arithmetically orthodox: other people may dream about thirteen times thirteen if they please, he thinks that inquiry involves a very grave responsibility: he shrinks from their society, and he betakes himself with renewed ardour to the four corners of the table that begins at twice one and ends at twelve times twelve. Is he arithmetically pious and arithmetically orthodox? He is arithmetically narrow and arithmetically bigoted and arithmetically foolish!

By-and-by he will advance further. I will say to him, “What is the square root of five-and-twenty?” And he will say, “Anybody knows that the square root of five-and-twenty is five.” “What is the square root of minus a?” “Ah, I do not go into that sort of thing at all.” “But there is a science which tackles questions of that kind.” The boy replies, “I know nothing about it; I do not want to be wise above that which is written. I can give you the square root of one hundred in a moment, but the square root of minus a he must be a very presumptuous and arrogant person to discuss such a question! If it be not presumptuous, which it appears to me to be, it is exceedingly foolish.” He lives within his arithmetic, he does not know that there is another science just over it, which undertakes to find out sums by signs, and to discuss deep problems by letters and symbols that appear to be foolish to those who have never entered their higher education.

When I come to these angel ministries, they baffle me. I say, “They are not in my arithmetic, they are not in the multiplication table.” Let me never forget that algebra continues and perfects common arithmetic, and let me never forget that even beyond algebra itself are methods of calculation unknown to those who are in the lower ranges of human thought. I must not set up myself as the measure and bound of things. If the Bible comes to me with angel ministries, with assurances of what has been done by angels and through the medium of dreams, by high efforts of the religious imagination, I must not play the boy-fool by saying that reckoning ends with twelve times twelve; I must remember that the universe is larger than I have yet imagined it to be, and that there are men who are older and wiser, and it is not for me to say God’s ministry begins here and ends there. I love to live in an enlarging universe, I love the horizon which tempts me to touch it, and then vanishes to an infinite distance.

The angel of the Lord said, “They are dead, which sought the young child’s life.” The good have everything to hope from time, the bad have everything to fear from it.

The bad man is in haste, the good man rests in the Lord and waits patiently for him. The bad man says, “It must be done now; my motto is ‘ ad rem ,’ now or never, strike the iron while it is hot, let passion have its way instantaneously.” They that believe do not make haste, they are calm with the peace of God; they trust to time; they say, “All things will be fulfilled in the order of duration and the process of the suns.” Innocence can wait; innocence can go into any land and tarry there until sent for by the angel; innocence can go into any prison and wait, not till helped. by a butler, but until sent for by the king. If thou art innocent, be quiet; if thou art really good at the core, through and through, simple-minded, honest in motive, pure in purpose, high and sacred in ambition, wait; thy funeral will not be first.

Yet another fear fell upon the mind of Joseph. When he heard that Archelaus reigned in Judea, under the inferior title of Ethnarch, in the room of his father Herod, he was “afraid to go thither.” There are some families of which we are afraid: there are whole generations that seem to be blighted with a common taint. There are some chains whose links are all bad. Joseph thought that Archelaus might inherit the prejudices and hostilities of his father. There was no need for him to do so. Thank God, a man may break away from his own family, a child may be a stranger to his own father. Thank God for these possibilities of beginning again. I see what is called fate in the order and destiny of men: I have taken hold of the chain and find it to be thick and strong yet I see also the wonderful liberties of men, so that they can detach themselves from a melancholy and shameful past on the part of others and begin again, by themselves, under God’s blessing and direction, for themselves. Was your father a bad man? You may be a good son. Fear not, do not droop under the blighting cloud. If it be in your heart to be better and you mention this purpose in prayer to God, your father’s name shall rot, and yours shall be a memorial of goodness and hope, long as the sun endures.

They are DEAD which sought the young child’s life. That is always the ending of wickedness: that is the history of all the assaults that ever have been made upon Jesus Christ and his kingdom. I have seen great armies of men come up against the young child, and behold they have perished in a night, and in the morning the angels have said to one another, “They are DEAD which sought the young child’s life.” I have seen armies of infidel books come up to put down Christianity, to expose it; and refute it and cut it to pieces, and destroy it as Herod’s sword the children of Bethlehem, and lo, in twelve months not one of them could be found, and the angels have said to one another, “They are DEAD which sought the young child’s life.” I have seen critics come up with keen eye and sharp knife, and a new apparatus adapted to carry out its processes and purposes of extermination, and behold the critics have cut their own bones and died of their own wounds, and the angels have said, “They are DEAD that sought the young child’s life.” I have seen whole towns of new institutions, created for the purpose of putting down the Christian Church. All kinds of competitive buildings have been put up at a lavish expenditure, the preacher was to be put down, the Bible was to be shut up, the old hymn-singing was to be done away with, a new era was to dawn upon the wilderness of time, and lo, the bankruptcy court had to be enlarged to take in groups of new mendicants, for they DIED that sought the young child’s life!

No man ever died who sought the young child’s saving ministry; no man ever died who went to the young child and said, “My Saviour, thy grace is greater than my sin, pity me and lift me out of this deep pit by the hand of thy love.” The angels never said about such a one, “He is dead who offered that prayer.” No dead man is found at the foot of the cross, they live who touch that tree, they are immortal who open their hearts to receive that baptism of blood, they are a triumphant host that take hold of hands around the young child.

He is always young: he is always in bloom. Time cannot wither him: as for custom it cannot “stale the infinite variety” of his ministry and his worship. God delights in youth: there is no wearying in the duration of goodness wickedness runs down into exhaustion, goodness runs up into renewal of efflorescence and beauty, and eternal spring.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

Ver. 16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked ] He had mocked them, and yet takes it ill to be mocked of them, to have his own measure: he never takes notice of this, that God usually maketh fools of his enemies; lets them proceed, that they may be frustrated; and when they are gone to the utmost reach of their tether, pulls them back to their task with shame.

Was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew ] “In their anger they slew a man,” saith Jacob of his two sons; “cursed be their anger, for it was fierce,” &c., Gen 49:6-7 . It is indeed the fury of the unclean spirit, that old manslayer, Gen 4:23 a very beast within the heart of a man; a short madness, as we see in Saul, whom the devil possessed by this passion; Eph 4:27 in Lamech, who slew a man in his heat, and boasted of it; as Alexander Phereas consecrated the javelin wherewith he slew Poliphron (Plutarch); in David, who swore a great oath what he would do to Nabal by such a time: 1Sa 25:21-22 and when Uzziah was smitten for his carting the Ark, 1Ch 15:2 how untowardly spake he! (so did Jonah too), as if the fault were in God (dogs in a chase sometimes bark at their own masters). Lastly, in Theodosius at Thessalonica, where being enraged at the slaughter of certain judges, slain by sedition, he executed at hand of seven thousand men. Anger begins in rashness, abounds in transgression, Pro 29:22 ends in repentance. a Jonathan therefore rose from the table in fierce anger, 1Sa 20:34 and, to prevent further mischief; went into the field to shoot: and Ahasuerus, to slake the fire of his wrath conceived against Haman, walked into his garden, ere he pronounced anything against him, Ezr 7:7 .

All the children ] His own son also; which Augustus Caesar hearing of, said, “it were better be Herod’s swine than his son.” b So Philip, King of France, ventured his eldest son twice in the wars against those ancient Protestants, the Albigenses, at the siege of Toulouse. And Philip, King of Spain, suffered his eldest son Charles to be murdered by the cruel Inquisition, because he seemed to favour Lutherans: for which that mouth of blasphemy, the Pope, gave him this panegyric, Non pepercit filio suo, sed dedit pro nobis: He spared not his own son, but gave him up for us. (Beza.)

According to the time which he had diligently inquired ] Some think the wise men came before the purification, but Epiphanius will have it well nigh two years after. Herod was diligent in the search, that he might make sure work; but God defeated him. I kept the bloodhound at staves’ end (saith Nichol. Shetterden, martyr), not as thinking to escape them, but that I would see the foxes leap above ground for my blood if they can reach it, &c. (Acts and Mon.)

a Qui non moderabitur irae, infectum volet esse dolor quod suaserit, et mens. Hor. Epist. i. 2. 60.

b Melius est Herodis esse porcum quam filium. Macrob. Saturn. Bassianus Imp. Getam fratrem supra matris pectus multo undantem sanguine obtruncabat, cum quidem ille clamaret, Mater, fer opem, interficior.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16. ] Josephus makes no mention of this slaughter; nor is it likely that he would have done. Probably no great number of children perished in so small a place as Bethlehem and its neighbourhood. The modern objections to this narrative may be answered best by remembering the monstrous character of this tyrant, of whom Josephus asserts (Antt. xvii. 6. 5), .

Herod had marked the way to his throne, and his reign itself, with blood; had murdered his wife and three sons (the last just about this time); and was likely enough, in blind fury, to have made no enquiries, but given the savage order at once.

Besides, there might have been a reason for not making enquiry, but rather taking the course he did, which was sure, as he thought, to answer the end, without divulging the purpose. The word in Mat 2:7 seems to favour this view. Macrobius (Saturnalia, ii. 4) relates an anecdote of Augustus: ‘Cum audisset inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes rex Judorum intra bimatum jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait, Melius est Herodis porcum esse ( ?) quam filium ( ?).’ But Macrobius wrote in the fifth century, and the words ‘intra bimatum’ look very like a quotation from our narrative. Besides, the anecdote shews great ignorance of the chronology of Herod’s reign. Antipater, the last put to death of his sons, was of full age at his execution. See Ellicott’s note, Lectures, p. 78.

] ‘Loquitur Matth. ex sensu et opinione Herodis.’ (Calvin.)

] i.e. , not . This expression must not be taken as any very certain indication of the time when the star did actually appear. The addition implies that there was uncertainty in Herod’s mind as to the age pointed out; and if so, why might not the jealous tyrant, although he had accurately ascertained the date of the star’s appearing, have taken a range of time extending before as well as after it, the more surely to attain his point?

will betoken, as Meyer, the insulated houses, and hamlets, which belonged to the territory of Bethlehem.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 2:16-18 . The massacre . : ominous then . When he was certain that the Magi were not going to come back to report what they had found at Bethlehem, Herod was enraged as one who had been befooled ( ). Maddened with anger, he resolves on more truculent measures than he at first intended: kill all of a certain age to make sure of the one such is his savage order to his obsequious hirelings. Incredible? Anything is credible of the man who murdered his own wife and sons. This deed shocks Christians; but it was a small affair in Herod’s career, and in contemporary history. . , in Bethlehem, and around in the neighbourhood, to make quite sure. : the meaning is clear all children from an hour to two years old. But may be taken either as masculine, agreeing with understood = from a two-year-old child, or as a neuter adjective used as a noun = from the age of two years, a bimatu as in Vulg [9] There are good authorities on both sides. For a similar phrase, vide 1Ch 27:23 , . Herod made his net wide enough; two years ensured an ample margin. . . . Euthy. Zig. insists that these words must be connected, not with , but with , putting a comma after the former word, and not after the latter. If, he argues, Herod had definitely ascertained from the Magi that the child must be two years old, he would not have killed those younger. They made Mary’s child younger; Herod kept their time and added a margin: . It does not seem to matter very much. Herod would not be very scrupulous. He was likely to add a margin in either case; below if they made the age two years, above if they made it less.

[9] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 2:16-18

16Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. 17Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:

18″ A voice was heard in Ramah,

Weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children;

And she refused to be comforted,

Because they were no more.”

Mat 2:16 “slew all the male children. . .two years old and under” Bethlehem was a small village, so probably few babies were involved in the slaughter. The phrase “two years old and under,” reinforces the age of Jesus as a toddler, not an infant, at the time of the Magi’s visit.

Mat 2:18 “Ramah” Mat 2:18 is a quote from Jer 31:15, but it relates to Gen 48:7. Rachel, the mother of Joseph, was associated with the Northern Ten Tribes, while her other son, Benjamin, was associated with Judah. In this one mother both houses of Israel are joined. The city of Ramah (6 miles north of Jerusalem) was the collection point for the deportation of the Northern Ten Tribes under Sargon II of Assyria in 722 B.C. Symbolically Rachel is again weeping over her lost children.

NASB”weeping and great mourning”

NKJV”lamentation, weeping and great mourning”

NRSV”wailing and loud lamentation”

TEV”sound of bitter weeping”

NJB”lamentation and bitter weeping”

This is an allusion to Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, who had children, one of whom would be part of the northern ten tribes (after the united monarchy split in 922 B.C.) and one in the southern tribes. She is depicted as weeping over the exile of her sons (cf. Jer 31:15, referring to the exile of Israel in 722 B.C. and Judah in 586 B.C.). In this context her grief is a metaphor for the death of the children of Bethlehem by Herod.

Some uncial Greek manuscripts have one verb, ” weeping” (i.e., , B, Z); others add “mourning,” which comes from the LXX of Jer 31:15 (i.e., C, D, L, W). As with so many of these manuscript variants, it makes little difference in understanding the meaning of the verse.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

saw. App-133.

mocked = deceived.

wroth. Greek. thumoomai. Occurs only here.

all. The number could not have been great.

children = boys. Plural of pais. App-108.

coasts = borders.

two years. Greek. dietes. Occurs only in Matthew. It was now nearly two years since the birth at Bethlehem. Herod had inquired very accurately, Mat 2:7. See notes on Mat 2:1 and Mat 2:11. The wise men found a pais, not a brephos (see App-108. ), as the shepherds did (Luk 2:16).

of = from. Greek. p’ara. App-104.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

16.] Josephus makes no mention of this slaughter; nor is it likely that he would have done. Probably no great number of children perished in so small a place as Bethlehem and its neighbourhood. The modern objections to this narrative may be answered best by remembering the monstrous character of this tyrant, of whom Josephus asserts (Antt. xvii. 6. 5), .

Herod had marked the way to his throne, and his reign itself, with blood; had murdered his wife and three sons (the last just about this time); and was likely enough, in blind fury, to have made no enquiries, but given the savage order at once.

Besides, there might have been a reason for not making enquiry, but rather taking the course he did, which was sure, as he thought, to answer the end, without divulging the purpose. The word in Mat 2:7 seems to favour this view. Macrobius (Saturnalia, ii. 4) relates an anecdote of Augustus: Cum audisset inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes rex Judorum intra bimatum jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait, Melius est Herodis porcum esse ( ?) quam filium ( ?). But Macrobius wrote in the fifth century, and the words intra bimatum look very like a quotation from our narrative. Besides, the anecdote shews great ignorance of the chronology of Herods reign. Antipater, the last put to death of his sons, was of full age at his execution. See Ellicotts note, Lectures, p. 78.

] Loquitur Matth. ex sensu et opinione Herodis. (Calvin.)

] i.e. , not . This expression must not be taken as any very certain indication of the time when the star did actually appear. The addition implies that there was uncertainty in Herods mind as to the age pointed out; and if so, why might not the jealous tyrant, although he had accurately ascertained the date of the stars appearing, have taken a range of time extending before as well as after it, the more surely to attain his point?

will betoken, as Meyer, the insulated houses, and hamlets, which belonged to the territory of Bethlehem.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 2:16. , was mocked) Such was the kings impression, entirely at variance with the spirit of the Magi. They did, however, hold the royal authority at nought in comparison with the Divine. Herod did not know what might be doing [and he, therefore, became anxious and infuriated].-, having sent) sc. murderers, and that suddenly.-, he slew) This was a sin crying to Heaven for vengeance; cf. Mat 2:18.-, all) Of whom, says Feu-Ardent[97] on Irenu[98] . 3:18,-Christ, whilst yet Himself a child, consecrated fourteen thousand as martyrs, by the unutterable cruelty of Herod, as the Ethiopians record in the Liturgy left to them by St Matthew, and the Greeks preserve in their calendar.- , the boys) not girls; cf. Exo 1:16.- , from two years old) The adjective is put in the masculine, as in 2Ch 31:16; cf. the Hebrew original. , …, according to the time, etc.) The time indicated by the Magi was, perhaps, a little beyond a year: and Herod laid down, therefore, two years as the limit of massacre.

[97] FRANCOIS FEU-ARDENT, a Cordelier, was born at Coutance in 1541, became Doctor of the Sorbonne in 1576, and died at Bayeux in 1610. He published an edition of Irenus, with an original commentary, in 1575.-(I. B.)

[98] renus (of Lyons, in Gaul: born about 130 A.D., and died about the end of the second century). The Editio Renati Massueti, Parisin, a. 1710.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Mat 2:16-18

5. MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS

Mat 2:16-18

16 Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the Wisemen, was exceeding wroth.-The wise men received from Herod the information they needed, and then went back home another way without bringing the information he required of them; they had been warned of God not to return by way of Jerusalem; of course, Herod did not know this. He thought that he had been “mocked” by the Magi; this word in the original means to trifle with, to treat as children treat their fellows. He became very angry; a despotic ruler easily comes to regard the slightest neglect to do his bidding as a gross insult; he had wicked intents to carry out, and was enraged when he thought that others were interfering with his plans; such a neglect or disobedience on the part of the Magi infuriated Herod. If his evil plans were not carried out, or even if they were delayed, he became incensed, and in his blind rage he became more determined to execute his wicked plan. He “was exceeding wroth.” He was outwitted, and his rage knew no bounds. While in such a frame of mind, he would naturally magnify the danger which seemed to threaten his dynasty.

And slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem.- Herod was determined not to be outwitted; he did not learn the exact location of the child, so he commanded an act that would include the babe Jesus; he commanded that all the male children “from two years old and under” should be killed. Excessively enraged, he thought still to accomplish his purpose by destroying the male children in Bethlehem within the estimated age of the child Jesus as he inferred it from the wise men. It was not Herod’s nature to take the least account of the cruelty or the guilt which his command involved; some translators have put it “all the children,” but a better translation is “all the male children,” as the original word determines the gender, which is masculine. He did not stop with the destruction of the male children “that were in Bethlehem,” but his command included those “in all the borders thereof”; this included the male children in the houses and hamlets which belonged to the territory of Bethlehem. It was a male child that he feared as his rival to his dynasty, hence he was not interested in destroying the female infants. We see a good reason why both the visit of the wise men to Bethlehem and the flight of Joseph and Mary to Egypt had been kept a secret; if these events had been known in Bethlehem, the people could have saved their children by informing Herod that the particular male child that he wanted to destroy had been taken to Egypt.

The New Testament record of this atrocious deed of Herod is the only record that we have of it; for this reason some have doubted the New Testament record. Josephus, a Jewish writer and historian, makes no reference to this foul deed of Herod. It is not known how many children perished; we have no way of determining the population of Bethlehem at that time, neither any way of estimating the number of male children that were there at that time. Commentators have varied in their estimation of the number from one thousand down to twenty; evidently the number could not have been very large. Since no great number of children perished in so small a place as Bethlehem and its neighborhood, it would not make much impression on any historian. Herod had marked the way to his throne with blood; he had murdered his wife and three sons; he had committed many crimes against the Jews; it was likely enough that in his blind fury he would make such a savage law or command as the destruction of the babes in Bethlehem. There is no wonder that the affair is not noticed by Josephus as it was of small importance when compared to the other wicked deeds of Herod. This massacre of the children was not done openly, but was done in a secret at Herod’s official act, hence no record of it would be preserved. Herod made sure that he had included the baby Jesus; his plan of destroying all the male children “from two years old and under” gave him a margin on both sides; that is, to include children of such an age that if the star appeared either a few months after or a few months before the birth of Jesus, he would be included in the number that was slain.

17, 18 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.-“Then was fulfilled” is the way Matthew introduces his quotation from Jeremiah; the prediction is found in Jer 31:15. In other places Matthew introduces the prophecy by saying “that it might be fulfilled.” This is another fulfillment of a typical prophecy and not a literal prophecy. Jeremiah referred to the deportation of the Jews to Babylon; Rachel, the ancestress of Benjamin, was buried near Bethlehem; she is represented as bewailing from the grave the captivity of her children , the sound of her lamentations reaches northward beyond Jerusalem, and is heard at Ramah, a fortress of Israel on the frontier toward Judah where the captives were collected. It means that the grief caused by the carrying away of the kingdom of Judah into Babylonian captivity caused such lamentation of the female captives that it was heard even by Rachel in her tomb. Jeremiah used figurative language to express the deep sorrow of the exiled mothers of the kingdom of Judah. In the massacre of the infants of Bethlehem the calamity of the mothers of Judah was not only renewed, but its description verified in the fullest and most tragic manner. Rachel represents the mothers of Bethlehem lamenting over their children.

Matthew gives three quotations from the prophets in this chapter. (Verses 6, 15, 18.) These three quotations from the prophets illustrate three different classes of quotations which are found in the New Testament. The first quotation is concerning the birthplace of Jesus, and it is strictly a prediction as it refers directly to that event. The next class refers to the call of Jesus out of Egypt and illustrates an example of a prophecy which has a double reference, a primary and a secondary fulfillment; these are sometimes called typical, because they are originally spoken concerning a type and find another fulfillment in the antitype. The third class refers to the weeping at Bethlehem by the mothers of the babes that were slain; this is an example in which the event fulfills the meaning of the words used by a prophet, though the words had originally no reference at all to this event; it is a verbal fulfillment, and not a real fulfillment, as is found in the other two classes.

The care that was taken over the infant King helps to establish his later claim as King; God emphasized the prediction that he was to be a king by his miraculously guiding the Magi to him; his protection of him from the slaughter is another proof of the divinity of Jesus. All of the prophecies concerning Jesus up to this point have been fulfilled, and we may expect all others to be as minutely fulfilled as were those pertaining to the birth and infancy of Jesus.

The Escape to Egypt – Mat 2:13-18

Open It

1. What are the pros and cons of fierce competition and rivalry?

2. Why does the death of a child seem especially tragic?

3. What was your most frightening brush with death?

Explore It

4. What happened after the Magi left the home of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus? (Mat 2:13)

5. How did God communicate with Joseph? (Mat 2:13)

6. Where did the angel tell Joseph to go? Why? (Mat 2:13)

7. How long was Joseph to keep his family in hiding? (Mat 2:13)

8. Why was it necessary for Joseph to take his family and flee? (Mat 2:13)

9. How did Joseph respond to the warning he received? (Mat 2:13)

10. What event allowed Joseph to depart from Egypt with his family? (Mat 2:15)

11. Why was the “escape to Egypt” significant in the life of Christ? (Mat 2:15)

12. What was King Herods emotional state when he realized the Magi had tricked him? (Mat 2:16)

13. What orders did King Herod give in an attempt to eliminate his competition? (Mat 2:16)

14. Who prophesied the horrible episode of infanticide in Bethlehem? When? (Mat 2:17)

15. What was the response to Herods mass execution of children? (Mat 2:18)

Get It

16. How might our lives be different if Herods death plot against Christ had succeeded?

17. What happens when people try to thwart Gods plan?

18. Why is it important to listen to God?

19. Why is it important to obey God immediately?

20. What are some wise ways to handle anger?

21. What is it about competition that makes us feel so threatened?

22. What is the best response to “rivals” or “opponents”?

23. How can Christians serve those who are the victims of senseless violence?

Apply It

24. In what area of your life do you need to trust God more instead of being driven by competition?

25. What action could you take today to minister to someone who is in mourning?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Out of Egypt Did I Call My Son

Mat 2:16-23

The death of those little children was very pathetic. From the first it seemed as though our Lords advent would bring not peace, but the sword. Their mothers have long since been comforted, but it was a bitter experience. The little ones were the nucleus of the great attendant crowd that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, Rev 14:1-4.

They are dead that sought the young childs life. Such is the epitaph that may be written for those who have set themselves to oppose the cause of Christ. Voltaires house in Geneva is now used as a Bible Society depot. Many of the books that made Christians tremble for the Ark, are to be found on the top shelves of second-hand libraries. There is no permanence in destructive criticism. The young child comes up out of Egypt. There is a sense in which the life of Jesus is the epitome of the story of Israel and the experience of each Christian. See that you do not linger in Egypt, but come up in the pathway of separation and consecration to His high purposes.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

when: Gen 39:14, Gen 39:17, Num 22:29, Num 24:10, Jdg 16:10, Job 12:4

was exceeding: Pro 27:3, Pro 27:4, Dan 3:13, Dan 3:19, Dan 3:20

and slew: Gen 49:7, 2Ki 8:12, Pro 28:15, Pro 28:17, Isa 26:21, Isa 59:7, Hos 10:14, Rev 17:6

according: Mat 2:7

Reciprocal: Gen 35:16 – Ephrath Gen 42:13 – one is not Exo 2:3 – could not Jdg 9:5 – slew 1Sa 2:33 – to consume 1Sa 19:17 – Why hast 1Sa 22:16 – and 1Sa 24:20 – I know well 1Ki 4:30 – the children 1Ki 18:12 – he shall slay me 1Ki 21:11 – did as Jezebel 2Ki 1:11 – O man 2Ki 11:1 – and destroyed Est 5:9 – he was full Psa 2:2 – kings Psa 21:11 – are not Psa 62:4 – consult Psa 124:3 – their wrath Pro 12:5 – counsels Pro 14:29 – but Pro 17:12 – rather Pro 21:24 – haughty Pro 29:2 – when the wicked Ecc 10:13 – beginning Isa 51:13 – where is Jer 31:15 – A Dan 2:12 – General Mat 2:13 – for Mar 12:7 – This Joh 12:10 – General Act 12:19 – commanded Act 23:35 – in

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

SLAIN FOR CHRISTS SAKE

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth.

Mat 2:16

The Festival of the Innocents dates as far back as the third century. Its celebration has been universally observed from the first. Dying so early, these little ones are called Innocentes, or Innocuiharmless babes. They were slain for Christs sake.

I. Herods disappointment.Herod, surnamed the Great, was reigning as king over Juda when Christ was born in Bethlehem; but he had often to struggle hard, both by craft and sword, to keep his throne; so that when he heard of the Magi from the Orient inquiring in Jerusalem for the new King of the Jews, the sceptre seemed already to have fallen from his aged hands. Warned of God in a dream, the Magi went back to their own country without revisiting Jerusalem; and when Herod heard they had done so, his wrath burned like fire, and he felt more determined and vengeful than ever.

II. His merciless edict.Strange that he could find any one to execute his fiat, for it was a barbarous piece of work; but his soldiers were Romans, who hated the Jews. Inhuman monsters these men! but he was the greatest of them all who was their chief. So all the centuries have regarded him.

III. The bitter sorrow caused by Herod.This is forcibly expressed by three touching wordslamentation, and weeping, and great mourningwhich had original fulfilment when Nebuzaradan, after destroying Jerusalem, brought all the prisoners to Ramah, and there disposed of them for the sword or captivity (Jer 40:1). The prophecy had its complete fulfilment in connection with the slaughter of the Innocents; the lamentation, however, in this latter case was not borne from Ramah to Bethlehem, but from Bethlehem to Ramah.

Illustrations

(1) The Massacre of the Innocents is profoundly in accordance with all that we know of Herods character. The master-passions of that able but wicked prince were an unbounded ambition and an excruciating jealousy. His whole career was red with the blood of murder. He had massacred priests and nobles; he had decimated the Sanhedrin; he had caused the High Priest, his brother-in-law, the young and noble Aristobulus, to be drowned in pretended sport before his eyes; he had ordered the strangulation of his favourite wife. Deaths by strangulation, deaths by burning, deaths by being cleft asunder, deaths by secret assassination, confessions forced by unutterable torture, acts of insolent and inhuman lust, mark the annals of a reign which was so cruel that, in the energetic language of the Jewish ambassadors to the Emperor Augustus, the survivors during his lifetime were even more miserable than the sufferers. And as in the case of Henry VIII., every dark and brutal instinct of his character seemed to acquire fresh intensity as his life drew towards its close.

(2) A great painter still living has painted a grand picture representing Josephs flight in the night time. Joseph is turning to look at the watch-fires of Herods soldiers; Mary is arranging her Babes garments. The infant Jesus sees what Mary and Joseph do not seethe souls of the little ones whom Herods men had slain marching in triumphal procession as angel children around Him. Is not this a beautiful fancy of the great painter? he tells us in his touching picturethe abundant reward of those who suffer with Christ.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

SIN AND SUFFERING

The sight before us is that of suffering falling on those who have done nothing whatever to deserve it. These suffering Innocents suffered because of anothers Sin:because of a Sin they could have no share in. What was that Sin? Herod ordered their death. Why? Solely because of his selfish fears.

I. Herods sin.Herod was afraid that his throne might be endangered by the child of whose birth the Magi spoke. The one only thing that Herod cared about was his throne. In all probability he neither knew nor cared anything about the hopes of a Messiah, or the nature of the Messiah. He regarded the Jewish Religion with utter indifference. Selfish aggrandisement was his one aimhis ruling passion. The very thought of a possible rival to his throne roused all his passions. His whole character was licentious, cruel, and impetuous. And so, this ruling passion of selfishness once touched, he acted as we see. Thus we learn how a sin spreads out, and works misery to other people. The Holy Innocents had to suffer because of Herods selfishness.

II. Not peace, but a sword.Look at another consideration, namely, that the very first fruit of Christs Coming into the World was this sad history of the Mothers weeping for their children. Christ came into the World to bring peace and happiness and goodness. But the existence of Evil in the World brings sorrows out of blessings. Truly our Lord says, Think ye that I am come to bring Peace into the World? I tell you nay, but rather Division. So long as there is Evil in the World, this will be so ever. The wicked naturally reject what is good. They hate it instinctively. Even without stopping to know anything about it, they hate it, they kick against it, they strive to get rid of it. Herod knew little or nothing about Christ. He was an unbeliever. But no sooner did Christ come into the World than he tried to get rid of Him. So always.

III. Suffering for God.Learn again from this history to take it patiently when the Worlds blows and persecutions fall apparently so wide of the mark, and others are involved in the sorrows which the World tries to bring on those who assault its supremacy. It is a blessed thing to suffer with Good. No doubt, it is still more blessed to suffer for Good. Most blessed of all, no doubt, are they who, like Stephen, know the cause for which they strive, know the danger which they run, and suffer to the last in full consciousness of all, feeling every blow, until at last Death carries them into His longed-for Presence. What are we to say to those who are thus wounded in what we may call the chance medley of the warfare of Evil against Good?those who had taken no part in the strife, and yet are wounded, so to speak, by misadventure? The bare fact of the Churchs Commemoration of the Holy Innocents next after St. Stephen and St. John seems to give the answer. It has a message to all such. For what does this Commemoration do but testify that all such overflowings of Christs sufferings are guided by a Providence, and sanctify those they touch. The blows which fell upon the Holy Innocents were aimed at Christ. What an honour to those unconscious infants! What an honour to any one now to bear the like hostility to good!

Illustrations

(1) What we see in Herods case we see every day in our own world and in our own times. You cannot indulge in any sin without spreading mischief. A man is guilty of selfish extravagance, or of selfish desire to grow rapidly rich; he becomes involved in speculation either to make up for his extravagance, or to hasten his fortune; and what is the consequence? In nine times out of ten he involves everybody connected with him in misfortune. They were innocent. But they suffer for his selfishness. Or a man is guilty of self-indulgence, and becomes a drunkard, or otherwise licentious. Everybody knows how the sins of the fathers are destructive of the childrens lives and prospects. In fact, it is a proverb that the innocent suffer for the guilty. But the reason is not that the guilty go unpunished, but that every sin committed has effects which go on widening and widening like the circles of the waves when you throw a stone into still water. Sin cannot help scattering misery all round it, and it breaks out where you would least expect it. There is no sin that you can commit that ends with you. You may never know in this life, you never can know in this life, how far the effects of your sins spread out. But they do spread.

(2) Years and years had to pass before our Lord was to begin His Ministry, but the powers of Evil were on the alert before He was well out of His cradle; and so it is now and ever will be until all Evil is overthrown. Yes, the Herods of this world understand their business, and they try always to stamp out the first beginnings of whatever is good, while it is yet only in the beginning. It is no reproach to what is Good that it always stirs up strife on its first entrance. The reproach is all the other way. If there had been no Herod there would have been no mourning at Bethlehem.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

The prophet has been writing about the past sorrows of Gods people and their joy that came afterward. Following the prophets’ practice, Jeremiah regards this as an opportunity to speak of another event in the future In which a condition of great distTSBS was to be turned into a cause of joy. That event was the coming slaughter of the infants by Herod (Matt. 2: 16-18) in hiB attempt to destroy Jesus. That crime was overruled by the Lord for the good of humanity. Just as the captivity of the Jews was to he reversed and replaced by a condition of rejoicing. The reference to Rahel (Rachel) is figurative and doubtless is in recognition of her sorrowful life, ending at her death in childbirth at Rarnah, near Jerusalem.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

[From two years old, and under.] It was now two years ago, or thereabouts, since the star had shone, and Christ was born. The reason of the tarrying of Joseph and Mary in Beth-lehem was this; that they believed that the Messias, who, according to the prophet was born there, should have been brought up nowhere but there also; nor dared they to carry him elsewhere, before they had leave to do so by an angel from heaven.

The Jewish nation are very purblind, how and whence the Messias shall arise; and “Nemo novit, no man knows whence the Son of man is,” Joh 7:27; that is, from what original. It was doubted whether he should come from the living or from the dead. Only it was confessed by all without controversy, that he should first make some show of himself from Beth-lehem, which the priests and scribes of the people assert, Mat 2:4. Hence you have Christ now in his second year at Beth-lehem, whither Joseph and Mary had again betaken themselves with him, when they had now presented him in the Temple, according to the law, being forty days old, Luk 2:22. And they had taken care for his education in this place, and not elsewhere, until he himself, going forth from hence, might show himself openly the Messias, if they had not been sent away somewhere else by permission from heaven.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mat 2:16. The beginning of the persecutions which culminated in the crucifixion.

Then Herod when he saw that he was trifled with, i.e., duped, according to his view of the case, by the Magi, was exceeding wroth. The murderer of his own wife (Mariamne) and two sons (Alexander and Aristobulus) would easily murder other children in his anger. The emperor Augustus made a Greek witticism on the cruelty of Herod to his sons, and Josephus records that he ordered a number of the chief men to be put to death as soon as he expired, that there might be no rejoicing at his own decease. Josephus, however, does not mention the massacre at Bethlehem. It may have been unknown to him, since the sending forth may have been in secret, as was the questioning of the Magi (Mat 2:7), or unnoticed among the many horrible crimes of Herod. It will only be right, in estimating the value of the facts related by this Evangelist, to remember that the more forced in some cases appears the connection which he maintains between the facts he mentions and the prophecies he applies to them, the less probable is it that the former were invented on the foundation of the latter. Such incidents as the journey into Egypt and the mas grave and lamenting, thus indicating extreme calamity. The sound of her lamentations is carried beyond Jerusalem, and heard at Ramah (the name probably means high), a fortress of Israel on the frontier toward Judah, where the captives were collected. The figure becomes a typical prophecy of the grief in Bethlehem. Rachel was the ancestress of the tribe of Benjamin, which was always identified in fortune with Judah. She well represents the mothers of Bethlehem, near to which she died in child-birth and was buried. Her tomb, on the site of which there is now a mosque, lies about half a mile north of Bethlesacre of the children, must have been well-ascertained facts before any one would think of finding a prophetic announcement of them in the words of Hosea and Jeremiah, which the author quotes and applies to them. (Godet)

Male children, as the Greek implies.

In all its borders, coasts is now applied to sea borders alone. The neighborhood was included that there might be no escape, just as the age, two years, was the extreme limit within which the child could have been born, according to the time, or period, which he had exactly learned of the Magi. As children under the age of two years were slain, it is probable that the star had not appeared so long a time before the visit of the Magi. Cruelty here overran the limits of space and time alike. These infant martyrs were much celebrated in the ancient church, especially on the feast of Innocents (December 28).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, How Herod, having played the fox before, acts the lion now; his secret policy not succeeding, he breaks out into open and inhuman cruelty.

Learn, That when fraud and subtilty fail the enemies of the church, then thay fall to open rage, and barbarous inhumanity. Thus here these holy innocents fall as a sacrifice of Herod’s rage, and die for Christ, who came to die for them; and so were martyrs in deed, though not in will. Some affirm that Herod did not spare his own child, then at nurse in the coasts of Bethlehem; which made Augustus say he had rather be Herod’s hog, than herod’s child; because the Jews, did never ear swine’s flesh. And Herod, in compliance with the Jews, abstained from it also.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 2:16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men The word , here rendered, was mocked, properly signifies was played with, and well expresses the view in which the pride of Herod taught him to regard this action, as if it were intended to expose him to the derision of his subjects, and to treat him as a child, rather than as a prince of so great experience and renown. Dr. Campbell reads, deceived, observing, that, in the Jewish style, any treatment which appeared disrespectful, came under the general appellation of mockery. Thus, Potiphars wife, in the false accusation she preferred against Joseph, of making an attempt upon her chastity, says, that he came in to mock her, Gen 39:17; where the same word is employed by the LXX. which is here used. Balaam accused his ass of mocking him, when she would not yield to his direction, Num 22:29. And Delilah said to Samson, Jdg 16:10, Thou hast mocked (i.e., deceived) me, and told me lies. As one who deceived them appeared to treat them contemptuously, they were naturally led to express the former by the latter. Was exceeding wroth Very highly incensed and enraged; and in order to make the destruction of this unknown infant as pure as possible, sent forth Not immediately, it seems, but a little time after the departure of the wise men, a party of soldiers, and slew all the children The male children, as properly signifies. From two years old and under Or, as the words are rendered by the last-mentioned writer, From those entering the second year, down to the time whereof he had procured exact information from the magians. There can be no doubt, as the doctor observes, that in this direction, Herod intended to specify both the age above which and the age under which infants were not to be involved in this massacre. But there is some scope for inquiry into the import of the description given. Were those of the second year included or excluded by it? By the common translation they are included, by the other excluded. Plausible things may be advanced on each side. Dr. Campbell, however, for divers reasons, which he assigns, adopts the latter, and thinks that the import of the direction was, that they should kill none above twelve months old, or under six. It is probable that Herod, in his passion, ordered the slaughter of the infants as soon as he perceived that he was disappointed in his expectation of the return of the wise men, lest otherwise the child he was so jealous of should be removed. Some have inferred from hence, that it was not till some considerable time after the birth of Christ, that he was visited by the wise men. But there is little account to be given of the actions of a tyrant who slew three of his own sons, and who, it is reasonable to suppose, would wish to make sure work in this case, and therefore would, no doubt, extend the slaughter to those born before the first appearance of the star, thinking, perhaps, that it might not appear immediately upon the conception or birth of the child, but some time after. Accordingly, though the scribes told him the child was to be born in Bethlehem, he is not content to slay the infants there, but added thereto the slaughter of those in all the coasts. Who can avoid reflecting here on the horrible wickedness manifested in slaying these infants, who could neither hurt others nor defend themselves, and whom the king, as the guardian of the laws, was bound to have defended against the injuries of all lawless persons? But the wrath of wicked princes is usually extravagant and destructive. Thus Saul, when David had escaped, not only commanded Abimelech, with eighty-five priests, to be slaughtered, but also all the people of the city, not excepting even the women and children. This action of Herod was no less impious than unjust and cruel; for, to endeavour to make void the counsel of the Almighty God, declared by prophecies, by the appearance of a star, and by the consent of scribes and priests; what was it else but directly and designedly to oppose and fight against God? What cause we have to be thankful that we are not under the arbitrary power of a tyrant, whose sallies of distracted fury might spread desolation through houses and provinces. Let us not say, Where was the great Regent of the universe when such horrible butchery was transacted? His all-wise counsels knew how to bring good out of all the evil of it. The agony of a few moments transmitted these oppressed innocents to peace and joy, while the impotent rage of Herod only heaped on his own head guilt, infamy, and horror. Doddridge.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

SLAUGHTER OF THE INFANTS

16-18. Herods cruelty was simply horrific, killing his wife and three sons Antipater, only five days before he died; all the Maccabean family; and all others who were even suspected of political rivalry. So now he sends forth and deluges Bethlehem with the blood of the innocent infants, taking all, indiscriminately, two years old and younger, so as to make sure that he got the right one, as he was determined at any cost to hold fast the royal scepter. See how wonderfully God defeats the devil in the interest of his true people! While Herod was ransacking all Bethlehem, and cutting the throat of every infant, so as to make sure that he got Jesus, He was perfectly safe in His mothers arms, far away in another continent, so that Herod had all of his slaughter for nothing. Jer 31:15, with prophetic ear, long centuries antecedent to it, hears the awful weeping in Bethlehem: A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning: Rachel weeping for her children, and was not willing to be comforted, because they are not. Rama is the name of the country in and about Bethlehem. Rachels Tomb is in full view of Bethlehem, and only a mile distant. Here, long centuries after she is dead, she is described as weeping over her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are dead. The simple solution of the matter is, that Jeremiah, who was a brilliant poet, here turns loose his poetic imagination, personifying the weeping mothers of Bethlehem, whose dear babes were thus slaughtered, by Rachel, a mother in Israel, whose body is there with them sleeping in the dust. It is a strong figure, representing this dear mother, who had been so long dead, as now waking and weeping over her slaughtered children.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 16

Mocked; deceived.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

Some critical scholars discounted Matthew’s account of Herod’s slaughter of the Bethlehem children because there is no extrabiblical confirmation of it. However, Bethlehem was small, and many other biblically significant events have no secular confirmation, including Jesus’ crucifixion. One writer estimated that this purge would have affected only about 20 children. [Note: France, p. 85.] He believed that the total population of Bethlehem at this time was under 1,000. Compared to some of Herod’s other atrocities this one was minor. [Note: See Edersheim, 1:127.]

"Emperor Augustus reportedly said it was better to be Herod’s sow than his son, for his sow had a better chance of surviving in a Jewish community. In the Greek language, as in English, there is only one letter difference between the words ’sow’ (hyos) and ’son’ (hyios)." [Note: Barbieri, p. 23.]

 

"The selfsame character traits Herod exhibits in chapter 2, the [religious] leaders will exhibit later in the story. To enumerate the most obvious of these, Herod shows himself to be ’spiritually blind’ (Mat 2:3), ’fearful’ (Mat 2:3), ’conspiratorial’ (Mat 2:7), ’guileful’ and ’mendacious’ (Mat 2:8), ’murderous’ (Mat 2:13; Mat 2:16), ’wrathful’ (Mat 2:16; cf. Mat 21:15), and ’apprehensive of the future’ (Mat 2:16)." [Note: Kingsbury, p. 117.]

Matthew again claimed that another event surrounding Jesus’ birth fulfilled prophecy (Mat 2:17). Matthew is the only New Testament writer who quoted Jeremiah (cf. Mat 16:14; Mat 27:9). This quotation is evidently also from the Hebrew text. Incidentally, Matthew only quoted Isaiah and Jeremiah by name of all the prophets he quoted.

"Matthew is not simply meditating on Old Testament texts, but claiming that in what has happened they find fulfillment. If the events are legendary [rather than historical], the argument is futile." [Note: R. T. France, "Herod and the Children of Bethlehem," Novum Testamentum 21 (1979):120.]

It is not clear whether Jeremiah was referring to the deportation of the northern tribes in 722 B.C. or to the Babylonian Captivity in 586 B.C. Since he dealt primarily with the second of these events in his ministry, he probably did so here too. Poetically he presented Rachel as the idealized mother of the Jews mourning from her grave because her children were going into captivity. Since Rachel’s grave was near Bethlehem, mention of her ties in nicely with the events of Jesus’ early childhood near Bethlehem.

"In the original context, Jeremiah is speaking of an event soon to come as the Babylonian Captivity begins. As the Jewish young men were being taken into captivity, they went by the town of Ramah. Not too far from Ramah is where Rachel was buried and she was the symbol of Jewish motherhood. As the young men were marched toward Babylon, the Jewish mothers of Ramah came out weeping for sons they will never see again. Jeremiah pictured the scene as Rachel weeping for her children. This is the literal meaning of Jer 31:15. The New Testament cannot change or reinterpret what this verse means in that context, nor does it try to do so. In this category [of fulfilled prophecy], there is a New Testament event that has one point of similarity with the Old Testament event. The verse is quoted as an application. The one point of similarity between Ramah and Bethlehem is that once again Jewish mothers are weeping for sons they will never see again and so the Old Testament passage is applied to the New Testament event. Otherwise, everything else is different." [Note: Fruchtenbaum, p. 844. ]

Cooper called this "literal prophecy plus an application." [Note: Cooper, p. 176.] Bailey saw three points of comparison between the two situations: in both of them a Gentile king was threatening the future of Israel (cf. Mat 2:13), children were involved, and the future restoration of Israel was nevertheless secure (cf. Jer 31:31-37). [Note: Bailey, p. 8.]

Matthew evidently used Jer 31:15 because it presented hope to the Israelites that Israel would return to the land even though they wept at the nation’s departure. The context of Jeremiah’s words is hope. Matthew used the Jeremiah passage to give his readers hope that despite the tears of the Bethlehem mothers Messiah had escaped from Herod and would return to reign ultimately. [Note: Robert H. Gundry, The Use of the Old Testament in St. Matthew’s Gospel, with Special Reference to the Messianic Hope, p. 210; R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel According to St. Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary, pp. 43-44.]

"Here Jesus does not, as in Mat 2:15, recapitulate an event from Israel’s history. The Exile sent Israel into captivity and thereby called forth tears. But here the tears are not for him who goes into ’exile’ but because of the children who stay behind and are slaughtered. Why, then, refer to the Exile at all? Help comes from observing the broader context of both Jeremiah and Matthew. Jer 31:9; Jer 31:20 refers to Israel = Ephraim as God’s dear son and also introduces the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34) the Lord will make with his people. Therefore the tears associated with Exile (Jer 31:15) will end. Matthew has already made the Exile a turning point in his thought (Mat 1:11-12), for at that time the Davidic line was dethroned. The tears of the Exile are now being ’fulfilled’-i.e., the tears begun in Jeremiah’s day are climaxed and ended by the tears of the mothers of Bethlehem. The heir to David’s throne has come, the Exile is over, the true Son of God has arrived, and he will introduce the new covenant (Mat 26:28) promised by Jeremiah." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 95.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)