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, (hmrmw Mymd vya) , "a bloody and deceitful man"
F14: 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 F15, 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 F16, 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 F17 says, is the name of a devil, which kills children; and indeed such an action is truly a diabolical one.