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§. Rachel weeping for her children, &c.
Rachels grave was betwixt Bethlehem and Ramah, or at least not far distant from either of them, Gen. 35. 16, 20. 1 Sam. 10. 2. The Holy Ghost therefore doth elegantly set forth this lamentation, by personating Rachel [who died in the birth of her Ben-Oni, the Son of her sorrow] sorrowing for her Sons and Children that were thus massacred: And this sheweth that the Text in the Prophet, aimeth in the first place and intention, at the matter of Nebuzaradan: for in Bethlehem, Rachel properly had no children at all, that Ci∣ty being inhabited by the children of Judah, which descended of Leah: but in Ramah dwelt Rachels children, that being a Town of Ephramites descended from Joseph. How∣soever, Rachel may be said to weep for the Babes of Bethlehem as her own children, though they were not strictly and properly her seed, in regard of the interest that she had in all the tribes of Israel, as being wife unto their Father: as Joseph is often called the Father of Christ, being only husband to his mother. And see such another phrase, Gen. 37. 10. Shall I, and thy mother come to bow down before thee? Whereas Josephs mother was dead already.
Vers. 19. But when Herod was dead, &c.
The end of Herod was not long after the massacre of these infants, and his bloodiness which he had used all his life long, and topped up in the murder of these innocents, and in desire to have done as much to the Lord of life, the Lord doth now bring upon his own head. This matter with the children of Bethlehem, we conceive to have been some three months more or less before his end, in which space this was his behaviour, as may be col∣lected out of Josephus.
He had slain long before this, his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus, and now was he about to do as much by his Son Antipater, a child too like the Father, and one whom he left by will the Successor in his Kingdom: Him suspected by him for some machination against himself he had now shut up in prison, and intended him presently for the execu∣tion, but that his sickness whereof he died seizing on him gave some more space to the imprisoned, and some hopes and possibilities of escaping. His disease was all these mixed together, an inward burning and exulceration, an insatiable greediness and devouring, the Chollick, the Gout and Dropsie, his loins and secrets crawling with lice, and a stink about him, not to be indured. These wringings and tortures of his body, meeting with the peevishness of old age, for he was now seventy, and with the natural cruelty which always had been in him, made him murderously minded above all measure: insomuch that he put to death divers that had taken down a golden Eagle, which he had set up about the Temple: And when he grew near to his end, and saw himself ready to die, he slew his Son Antipater, and caused great multitudes of the Nobility and People to be closed up in a sure place, giving command to slay them as soon as he was dead, for by that means he said he should have the Jews truly and really to sorrow at his death. Vid. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 8, 9, 10. and de Bel. lib. 1. cap. 21.
Vers. 20. For they are dead that sought the young childs life.
The like saying is to Moses, Exod. 4. 19. where the word [they] may be understood of Pharaoh and his servants, which jointly sought his life for the Egyptians sake whom he had slain; and were now all dead and worn out in the fourty years of his being in Mi∣dian. But here [it is true indeed, that the seeking of the childs life may well be applied to Herods Servants, as well as himself] but that all they died with him or about the time of his death, who in flattery, or favour, or obedience to him, had promoted the slaugh∣ter at Bethlehem, and had sought the childs life, I know not upon what ground it should be conceived.
I should therefore by the [they] in this place understand Herod and his Son Antipater jointly together: For if it be well considered how mischievous this Antipater was against his own Brethren, and how he wrought their ruine and misery, for fear they should get betwixt him and the throne, yea, how he sought the destruction of his own Father, be∣cause he thought he kept him out of the Throne too long, it may very well be believed that he would bloodily stir against this new King of the Jews that the wisemen spake of, for fear of interception of the Crown, as well as his Father: He died but five days before his fathers death, as it was touched before out of Josephus; and thus God brought this bloodliness of the Father and the Son, and the rest of their cruelties to an end, and upon their own heads at once, and in a manner, together; and thus may the words of the An∣gel be very fairly understood, Take the child and return to the Land of Israel, for Herod and Antipater are dead, that sought his life.