Matthew 2:16 - Exposition

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked ( ὅτι ἐνεπαίχθη ) . The verb which in the New Testament occurs only in the synoptists, and always in the strict sense of "mock" ( e.g. Matthew 20:19 ; Matthew 27:29 , Matthew 27:31 , Matthew 27:41 ), represents Herod's feelings, and perhaps his language, at his treatment by the Magi. It was more than deception; they had trifled with him. Of the Wise Men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children ; Revised Version, male children ( τοὺς παῖδας , not τὰ τέκρα ). That were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts (Revised Version, borders ) thereof. Not merely the districts legally belonging to the city, but the neighbourhood generally. From two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired ( Matthew 2:7 , note) of the Wise Men . Had he made further inquiries, he might have aroused suspicion, so he made sure of his prey by allowing a wide margin both in time and space. "'On Augustus being informed,'says Macrobius ['Saturn.,' 2.4], 'that among the boys under two years of age whom Herod ordered to be slain in Syria, his own son also lind been slain, "It is better," said he, "to be Herod's pig ( ὖν ) than his son ( υἱὸν )." Although Macrobius is a late writer [circ. 400]. and made the mistake of supposing that Herod's son Antipater, who was put to death about the same time as the massacre of the innocents, had actually perished in that massacre, it is clear that the form in which he narrates the bon mot of Augustus points to some dim reminiscence of this cruel slaughter". Farrar (and Edersheim accepts his calculation) reckons that not more than twenty children were killed. Thus failed the first attempt to destroy Christ, Revelation 12:4 (Nosgen).