Murder of the Innocents, and Return
[The Saviour of the World] [Volume I] [Book I]
[Poem XVI] Poem XVII [Poem XVIII]
Flight into Egypt. Murder of the Innocents.
(The Gospel History, Section 13)
Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully learned of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she would not be comforted, because they are not.
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the young child’s life. And he arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judæa in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither; and being warned of God in a dream, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, that he should be called a Nazarene.
Murder of the Innocents, and Return
(The Saviour of the World, Vol I Book I Poem XVII)
Meanwhile, King Herod, mocked of the wise men,
And wroth exceeding, made of rage excuse:
He still would have the young Child’s life: on all
The little boys, two years and under, death
Decreed he, at the hands of his men-at-arms.
What need of bloody sword ’gainst baby strength
And piteous mothers’ wailing?
Too small a thing
For History’s record, this: any day a score
Might die of infant ailment, and who care,
Save that fond mother who fed eyes on each,
That father of whose flesh and blood each was?
Why not a score of babes, to justify
High policy—remove grave source of peril?
For how would Rome regard this Infant’s claims?
Before our God there be no small or great:
Anguish of mothers, blood of clinging babes,
Had, ages before, cried out to the just God:
The prophet Jeremiah told men how—
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
And would not be comforted, because they were not.”
Good is’t to do the will of God and die:
Full ill to hurt and kill and sacrifice,
For ends of ours, bodies and souls of men:
Sins of oppression are not forgot of God.
Now, Herod dead, an angel of the Lord
Appeared in a dream to Joseph; said to him,
“Arise, and take the young Child and His mother,
And unto the land of Israel return,
For they are dead that sought the young Child’s life.”
Thus, out of Egypt did He call His Son.
Joseph arose; took the young Child and mother,
And journeyed with them back to Israel:
But not in Bethlehem, David’s city, stayed;
A new king, Archelaus, Herod’s son,
Reigned over Judah—a danger to the Child.
Once more was Joseph warnèd in a dream:
Obedient, he withdrew to Galilee,
And came and dwelt again in Nazareth,
The fair and careless city he best knew.
Thus was fulfilled the prophet’s oracle—
Small honour should His birthplace bring to Him;—
Callèd a Nazarene, not Bethlehem-born;
Come out from a mixed people, scorned of Jews,
Not from King David’s city—of lineage pure.
So they who sat in darkness saw a Great Light
Running a daily round before their eyes,
E’en as the sun in heaven. And, might it be
Good that the Son of God, in that free place,
Should grow, and, all unhindered, manifest
His grace—not trammell’d by continual bond
Of the Law, a burden, laid by man, no man
Could bear? “Suffer the children,” He hath said.
St. Matthew ii. 16–23.
“A voice was heard in Ramah.”—Jer. xxxi. 15.
“Out of Egypt have I called My Son.”—Hos. xi. 1.
“A Nazarene.”—Isa. xi. 1.
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Commentary by J. R. Dummelow
Mt 2:16–18. Massacre of the Innocents (peculiar to St. Matthew). The incident is fully in accordance with what is known of Herod’s character, and could not have been suggested by the prophecy in v. 18, which really refers to the Babylonian captivity. It is a true instinct, born of the new significance which Christianity has given to child-life, which has led the Church to enroll the Innocents in ‘the noble army of martyrs,’ and to commemorate them in the Christmas festival (Dec. 28). ‘Not in speaking, but in dying,’ says the old collect, ‘did they confess Christ.’
Mt 2:16. All the male children] ‘Considering the population of Bethlehem, their number could only have been small—probably twenty at most.’ The massacre is not mentioned by Josephus, but ‘the murder of a few infants in an insignificant village might appear scarcely worth notice in a reign stained by so much bloodshed. Besides, he had perhaps a special motive for this silence. Josephus always carefully suppresses, so far as possible, all that refers to the Christ’ (Edersheim).
Mt 2:18. Was . . a voice heard] Jer 31:15. Rachel was buried at Ramah (cp. Gn 35:19 1 S 10:2), and when Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar, trains of Jewish captives were led by her tomb on their way to exile. Jeremiah poetically represents Rachel as coming out of her tomb, and weeping piteously over her dead and exiled descendants, and St. Matthew applies the prophecy to the circumstances of the slaughter of the Innocents.
Mt 2:19–23. Return to Palestine. Settlement at Nazareth. It is implied that Joseph had settled at Bethlehem and intended to remain there as the most suitable place for bringing up the future Messiah. But God judged that the despised Galilee was a better training-school for the future Saviour of the world.
Mt 2:22. Archelaus] Properly speaking Archelaus was only an ‘ethnarch,’ but ethnarchs and tetrarchs were popularly called ‘kings.’ Augustus had promised Archelaus the title of king, if he should deserve it by ruling well. Joseph feared to go back to Judæa, because Archelaus was as suspicious and cruel as his father. The pleasure-loving Antipas who ruled in Galilee, was known to be more humane. 23. Nazareth] or Nazara, was a town of lower Galilee, in the tribe of Zebulon. It lay in a lofty valley among the limestone hills to the N. of the plain of Esdraelon, or Megiddo. It was quite unimportant (Jn 1:46), and is not mentioned in OT. or Josephus.
A Nazarene] A thoroughly Jewish play upon words. In the OT. and in Jewish writings the Messiah is often called Tsemach (Jer 23:5), or Netser (Isa 11:1), i.e. the Branch, so that ‘Jesus the Nazarene’ would sound very much like ‘Jesus the Branch,’ i.e. the Messiah. Edersheim says, ‘We admit that this is a Jewish view, but then this Gospel is the Jewish view of the Jewish Messiah.’