“That fox”
Answer to Herod’s threats.
(The Gospel History, Section 105)
In that very hour there came certain Pharisees, saying to him, Get thee out, and go hence: for Herod would fain kill thee. And he said unto them, Go and say to that fox, Behold, I cast out devils and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected. Howbeit I must go on my way to-day and to-morrow and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Commentary by J. R. Dummelow
Lk 13:31–35. Message to Herod Antipas, and lament over Jerusalem. This threat of Herod is peculiar to Lk.
Lk 13:31. Certain of the Pharisees] Probably they wished to frighten Jesus out of the dominions of Herod, where He was tolerably safe, into Judæa, where He would be in the power of the Sanhedrin: cp. Amaziah’s attempt to frighten Amos (Am 7:10–17). Herod] son of Herod the Great, received by his father’s will the government (tetrarchy) of Galilee and Peræa. His first wife was the daughter of the Arabian prince Aretas, called in 2 Cor 11:32 king of Damascus. During a visit to his half-brother, Herod Philip (not the tetrarch), who lived as a private citizen in Rome, he became enamoured of his wife, Herodias, and persuaded her to leave her husband. He at once divorced his own wife, and married her. The marriage gave the greatest offence to devout Jews, for (1) it was unlawful to take a brother’s wife after his death, much less while he was alive (Lv 18:16, 20:21). The only exception was when the brother died without an heir (Dt 25:5–10). (2) Herodias was the niece of her new husband. Will] RV ‘would fain kill thee.’ Herod may have used threatening words, or there may have been a rumour to that effect, but it is certain that he did not seriously seek our Lord’s death: cp. 23:11.
Lk 13:32. That fox] The fox is an emblem of cunning, not of cruelty. Behold] i.e. ‘I perform My ministry to-day and to-morrow (i.e. for the time appointed), and on the third day (i.e. when My hour is come) I shall be perfected by death. No threats of Herod can shorten My ministry, or hasten the hour of My death.’ Perfected] He calls His death His ‘perfecting,’ because by it He perfected His work by atoning for the sins of the world, also because it was followed by His glorious resurrection and ascension, whereby His human nature was ‘perfected’ or glorified.
Lk 13:33. Nevertheless, etc.] i.e. ‘Yet although My death is so near, I must labour for the time appointed. Herod cannot prevent Me. He cannot destroy Me here in remote Galilee, for it is only in Jerusalem that a prophet can die.’ Walk] RV ‘go on my way.’ Out of Jerusalem] ‘The saying is severely ironical, and that in two ways: (1) According to overwhelming precedent, Jerusalem is the place in which a prophet ought to be put to death; for it had obtained by usage the right to slay the prophets (Grotius). (2) It is not Herod that will be the murderer. It is at your hands, in your capital that I shall die’ (Plummer).
“That fox”
(The Saviour of the World, Vol VI Book IV Poem LXI)
As the Lord spake, that self-same hour,
Some Pharisees stood by
To whom news of the court had leaked,
The King’s impatient cry—
“Bring me that Man of Nazareth,
And ye shall see Him die!”
Go, “Get Thee hence,” those friendly men
(Or were they hidden foes?)
Conjured Him, “for King Herod means
To end the earthly woes
Of all disturbers of his peace;
Be not found amongst those!”
The Lord, who knows what is in men
At the crafty Ruler mocks,
Half smiling, in quick insight says,
“Go, tell that cunning fox—
Who dreams his word hath might enough
To move the solid rocks—
“The mountains he perchance may move,
But not by kings’ decrees
Have come to pass the least events
That cause mankind unease;
Though he conceives it is his word
That binds a man or frees.
“He threatens, but secure I go;
To-morrow and to-day,
I cast out devils, sick men cure,
In the accustomed way;
As though for many years ’mongst men
I were constrained to stay.
“Have ye observed a dragon fly
Break from its dingy case,
And, shaking out the crumpled folds,
Rise on its wings of lace?
Thus, on the third day perfected,
My Rising men shall grace.
“To-day, the next, the following day,
I fulfil the decree;
For, Jerusalem, thou mistress hard,
Who killed the prophets, see,
It cannot be, the last of these
Shall perish out of thee!”
St. Luke xiii. 31-33.
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