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all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,

d Jer. xxxi. 15.

what the typical character of Israel in reference to Christ consisted, and to convince the Jews by this type that the humiliation and glory of the Messiah were as much connected, in the intention of God, as the humiliation of the ancient Israel, and the glory to which that people were afterwards conducted. Thus the words of the prophet, which had always a mystical reference to Christ, were in the strict sense FULFILLED. With respect to this passage it may, however, be observed that Doddridge, following earlier commentators, inclines to the opinion that the words are in the strictest sense a prophecy, and are to be read, "Though Israel be a child that is wayward and perverse, yet I have loved him, and WILL CALL My Son out of Egypt;" the past being used for the future, as is frequent in the prophetic writings. The sense would then be, that, notwithstanding the unworthiness of Israel, yet the compassion of God would still extend to them through the Messiah, and that, after having been preserved from Herod, he would be called out of Egypt to accomplish their salvation. Verse 16. Slew all the children.—That is, all the male children; This act, however barbarous, was quite accordant with the malignant character of Herod, who, especially when under the influence of political jealousy, knowing how much he was hated by the Jews, gave full range to his sanguinary temper. had imbrued his hands in the blood of his own sons, and his wife, and many others; and, though tormented in his last days by remorse and fear, yet even on his deathbed he sent for all the considerable Jews of Jericho, where he then was, and had them shut up in the circus, giving orders that they should be slain as soon as he expired, that he might have a lamentation at his death. The order was disobeyed;

τους παιδας.

He

but it marks the character of this unhappy man of blood, with whom departed the sceptre finally from Judah. Josephus does not mention this slaughter of the children by Herod. This may be accounted for probably because of the slight impression which this event would produce among the Jews, accustomed to witness in Herod's proceedings acts of superior atrocity; and also because it was done in an obscure part of the country, and was unconnected with any political event. The memory of it would be preserved among Christians, as connected with the early history of their Lord; but a Jew like Josephus, writing near a century afterwards, was likely to overlook it. Beside this, Josephus professes to take the greatest part of his account of Herod's actions from Nicolaus of Damascus, whom he acknowledges to have written with partiality in Herod's favour, omitting many of his cruelties. There was nothing in this matter, barbarous as it was, to give it a prominent place in heathen or Jewish record; nevertheless, it is adverted to by Macrobius, a heathen author of the fourth century, adduced by Lardner, but only to introduce one of the witticisms of Augus

tus, the Roman emperor. "Melius est Herodis porcum esse, quam filium,”—“ It is better to be Herod's swine, than his son;" alluding to the Jewish abstinence from swine's flesh. The remark of Augustus applied, however, to Herod's murder of his sons, though Macrobius joins with this the distinct tragedy of Bethlehem, to which only his words can refer : Those male infants within two years old, which Herod, the king of the Jews, ordered to be slain in Syria." This event is noticed in a Rabbinical work called Toldath Jeshu,-" And the king gave orders for putting to death every infant to be found in Bethlehem."

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18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.

21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

Verse 18. In Rama was there a voice heard, &c.-This quotation more nearly agrees with the Hebrew, than with the present copies of the Septuagint; the variation is, however, unimportant. Ramah was near Bethlehem, though in the tribe of Benjamin, near which Rachel was buried :-" And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephratah, which is Bethlehem." Here the captives were assembled, to be led away to Babylon, after the land and the cities had been

as

wasted by war. Jeremiah had predicted all this, and, by an elegant poetic creation, brings forth Rachel, one of the common mothers of the people, thus slaughtered and led away captive, out of her tomb, bitterly lamenting the loss of her children; and then comforts her with the promise of the return of the cap tives from Babylon; Jeremiah xxxi. 15, 16. This fine passage has also been thought a mere accommodation, quoted by St. Matthew; and, as the slaughter of the innocents took place near the tomb of Rachel, she might, it is thought, be introduced in the same poetical spirit by the evangelists, as lamenting this new calamity. St. Matthew, however, does not write poetically, but with that historical simplicity which renders it very unlikely that he should make such an application of the passage, which indeed could only be suggested by a glowing fancy, if no prophetic reference had been couched under it. Nor is the remark of Whitby and some others, who reject the doctrine of accommodation generally, of any weight, that the form of introducing

the quotation is not wa wλnpwon, that it might be fulfilled, but Tote enλnpwon, then was fulfilled; meaning, "Then that happened which gave a more full completion to the words of Jeremiah:" for if the words of Jeremiah should be considered as a prediction of the distress to be brought upon the Jewish mothers of his day, personified by Rachel, by the slaughtering and the leading away their children into captivity by the Babylonian army; still this prophecy may rank among a large class of predictions, which have an application to two or more events; and the heart-rending affliction of the mothers at Bethlehem and its borders was the second event to which the prophecy of Jeremiah looked, and that with striking propriety; since the scene was laid in the same tract of country, and the event was rendered equally moving by the cries and lamentations of bereaved mothers. The prophecy was therefore truly said by St. Matthew to have been "fulfilled" in its originally designed ultimate application. There is a much better reason than that given by Whitby for the change in the formula from, "Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled," to, "Then was fulfilled;" for, in the former instances of the birth of Christ, and his call out of Egypt, there was a divine agency employed; something "done" by God which fulfilled his own predictions; but in this slaughter the only agency was that of a wicked and infuriated despot.

Because they are not.-OT OUR ELσI, a phrase which equally applies to the loss of Rachel's children, whether by captivity

22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judæa in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee :

23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

CHAPTER III.

1 John preacheth: his office, life, and baptism. 7 He reprehendeth the Pharisees, 13 and baptizeth Christ in Jordan.

a

1 IN those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judæa,

a Mal. iii. 1.

or by the sword,--they were not to her. When used to express death, it does not import annihilation; for those Greek writers use the phrase who allow expressly, says Grotius, that the soul survives. Philo the Jew uses the same phrase for death.

Verse 22. That Archelaus did reign.He succeeded Herod only in Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, as ethnarch, a title inferior to king, though that title frequently was given in courtesy to sovereigns of every degree. Galilee was under Herod Antipas, from whom there was less apprehension of inquiry or danger. (See note on verse 1.) Under divine direction Joseph therefore repaired to Nazareth; for which also there was another reason beside his safety, which is mentioned in the

next verse.

The parts of Galilee.-Galilee was the country formerly occupied by the tribes of Issachar, Zebulon, Naphtali, and part of Asher; and was most honoured by our Lord's presence. It was bounded on the south by Samaria, on the west and north by "the coasts of Tyre and Sidon," and on the east by the countries of Abilene and Iturea. Josephus describes it as fruitful and well cultivated, abounding in towns and villages, and exceedingly populous. The dialect and accent of the Galileans somewhat differed from that of the Jews in other parts, and hence Peter (Matthew

xxvi. 73) was by his speech known to be of that province.

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Verse 23. He shall be called a Nazarene. -No such passage occurs in the Old Testament, nor can St. Matthew refer to any particular text, because he does not refer to any particular prophet; for his phrase is, "that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by THE PROPHETS," in the plural; so that something was thus accomplished in Christ, to which all the prophets gave concurrent testimony. Now it is plain that they all agree that he should be despised" as well as "rejected" of men; that he should be an object of contumely and reproach, and therefore, as Whitby well remarks, "the angel sent him to this contemptible place, that he might have a name of infamy put upon him." He shall be called mean and contemptible, as the root of the word signities, as well as separated. How Nazareth was esteemed, we learn from the words of the mild Nathanael,—“ Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” and the title Nazarean has been by Jews, and other enemies, always given in contempt to our Saviour and his disciples. All the other speculations of commentators on this designation appear to be fanciful and groundless.

CHAPTER III. Verse 1. In those days. That is, whilst Jesus yet remained

2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

dwelling in Nazareth, where he continued till near his entrance upon his public ministry.

Preaching. The word signifies to publish or proclaim anything as a public officer, commissioned and warranted by lawful authority. John the Baptist was God's commissioned herald, or preacher, and did not rush into his service without express authority.

In the wilderness of Judæa.-This comprehended, says Lightfoot, the mountains and part of the plain along the Jordan, and also especially the hill country south of Jerusalem. In this hill country, at Hebron, John was born, but retired, before his Mission, to the neighbouring wilderness, probably of Ziph or Maon. He taught first in that district, and then towards the Jordan, a tract sufficiently desert, yet with a great resort of people, and near large cities. The wildernesses of Canaan were not in every part without towns and cities.

Verse 2. And saying, Repent ye.-Although μετανοεω literally signifies, to change one's opinion, this does by no means express the force of the word, as it is commonly used in the New Testament. There it signifies to be affected with sorrow and remorse for sin, and to be so fully sensible to our spiritual dangers, as to turn to God in penitence, confession of sin, renunciation of it, and earnest prayers for forgiveness. The sense of theological terms, as used in the New Testament, must not be rigidly interpreted by Greek etymologies, which, whilst they amuse, will sometimes mislead.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.-This phrase, and that of "the kingdom of God," signify the same thing. Similar expressions, to be found in Jewish writers, who often use them to express the true worship and fear of God, have been referred to in illustration; but Jews are poor commentators upon this phrase, because they never attained to true notions of the kingdom of Messiah. The kingdom here referred to is that which

Daniel and other prophets so explicitly predicted, and the creation of which our Lord, by the public ministry on which he was now entering, was about to commence. It is therefore said by the Baptist to be "at hand." The very connexion Of REPENTANCE with this kingdom, as a necessary preparation for men becoming subjects of it, strongly marks its spiritual character. That is, it was not to be a kingdom" of this world;" not to originate in human policy, or to be concerned with merely civil matters. It was not to exhibit a monarch arrayed in external pomp, claiming some particular territory as his dominions, and defending them by arms against invasions; or exercising the office of " a judge and divider" of property, which our Lord expressly on one occasion refused to become, even when solicited. His was the more glorious office of bringing the hearts of men into subjection to the authority of God by moral influence, so that they should make his laws the rule of their private conduct, and the principles of his religion, its justice, mercy, and truth, the basis of all their social and political institutions. This was done by a perfect declaration of the claims of God, and the duties of men; by the work of his Spirit in their hearts, producing repentance for sin, and aversion to it; by reconciling them to God by faith in his sacrifice; by placing the heart under the constant and regenerating influence of grace, and by kindling there the flame of supreme love to God, to render the service and subjection of men to God voluntary and grateful, universal and absolute. This is the kingdom of God which an apostle so forcibly describes to be "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It has no parallel; for the establishment of such a sovereignty as this could never enter into the heart of man to conceive; its design and execution equally implied divine wisdom and divine power; it is confined to no people, no country, no rank; it addresses itself to no collective

3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias,

bodies, but separately to individuals; and it is only through the multiplication of those individuals themselves, who are brought thus into a state of subjection, that it affects the state and condition of external political society, by the diffusion of the corrective principles of truth, justice, and charity. But in this way it urges forward, and will finally accomplish, those mighty and beneficial changes in the social and political condition of all nations, on which the prophets so rap、 turously dwell, as the final results of Messiah's glorious and universal reign. Of this kingdom, so purely spiritual, but which was expressed by the prophets in terms taken from the accidents of earthly monarchies, the Jews could have no just conception, because they interpreted those predictions literally, and in a manner most accordant with their carnal desires and expectations, their national pride, and their haughty ambition. With these notions even the disciples of our Lord himself were so infected, that, though the whole current of his teaching, and the most striking parts of his conduct, tended to correct the error, they were "slow of heart to understand," and never fully attained to true conceptions of the great subject, until after Christ's resurrection and ascension to sit, not upon an earthly throne, but upon a heavenly one, as suited to that heavenly kingdom which he was first to establish among men on earth, and to perfect for ever amidst the glories of immortality.

Verse 3. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice, &c.-These words are supposed by some to have been first spoken of the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, through the desert places which separated the two countries. Bishop Lowth takes this view, but allows that under the emblem of that deliverance a redemption of an infinitely more glorious nature was shadowed out, and that the evangelists, with the greatest propriety, apply the words to the opening of the gospel dispensation by John the Baptist.

But there is no more reason to suppose that this lofty prediction had a primary and an ultimate sense, than that the fiftythird chapter of the same prophet referred first to some person who lived before Christ, and then more perfectly to Christ himself. Many prophecies, indeed, have a double reference, an immediate and an ultimate one, which arose out of that system of typical persons and typical things which we find in scripture. But it is equally certain, that many prophecies of the Old Testament refer to Christ, and to him only. Such, by the acknowledgment of all Christians, is the fiftythird of Isaiah; and whoever reads the section in which the passage in question stands, and which obviously comprehends the first eleven verses of the fortieth chapter of the same book, will perceive that it is as distinct and perfect a portion of prophecy, and possesses as complete a unity as the former, and has no internal marks of reference whatever to any other event beside that personal appearance of Messiah, to be introduced by his harbinger. Bishop Lowth opens the passage with his usual taste: "The prophet hears a voice giving orders by solemn proclamation, to prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness, to remove all obstructions before Jehovah marching through the desert; the idea being taken from the practice of eastern monarchs, who sent harbingers before them to prepare all things for their passage, and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove impediments." But what application there is in all this to the return of the Jews from Babylon, it is impossible to conceive. Had they marched from Babylon, as from Egypt, with the visible cloud of the divine presence among them, there would then have been an adaptation in the terms of the prophecy to the event; "Jehovah" would then have had "his

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