Acts 12:19

(19) Commanded that they should be put to death.—Literally, that they should be led away—i.e., to execution. The phrase was half-technical, half-euphemistic. Capital punishment was, according to Roman usage, the almost inevitable penalty for allowing a prisoner to escape. So at Philippi, the gaoler, when he thought the prisoners had escaped, was on the point of anticipating the sentence by suicide (Acts 16:28). See Note on Acts 27:42.