Mark 6:19

19 Herodias, smoldering with hate, wanted to kill him, but didn't dare

Mark 6:19 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 6:19

Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him
Was angry with him, conceived wrath, and laid up hatred against him, and was an adversary to him; which is the sense of the Oriental versions. She bore him an inward grudge, and lay in wait to take the first opportunity of dispatching him:

and would have killed him, but she could not;
being hindered by Herod, who as yet would not suffer it; partly through fear of the people, and partly through the respect he had for John.

Mark 6:19 In-Context

17 Herod was the one who had ordered the arrest of John, put him in chains, and sent him to prison at the nagging of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.

18 For John had provoked Herod by naming his relationship with Herodias "adultery."

19 Herodias, smoldering with hate, wanted to kill him, but didn't dare

20 because Herod was in awe of John. Convinced that he was a holy man, he gave him special treatment. Whenever he listened to him he was miserable with guilt - and yet he couldn't stay away. Something in John kept pulling him back.

21 But a portentous day arrived when Herod threw a birthday party, inviting all the brass and bluebloods in Galilee.