The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 47

of 1uda: for out of thee shall eome a they were only reproducing the result the.t Oovemor, th&t shall rule my people Iaro.el; they bad arrived at, they would care for and thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in only the substance of the prophet's teaching no wise least among the prince, of Judah: ( cf. the paraphrastic rendering of the For out of thee ahaU come fOTth a gOTJernOT, Targum). In the land of Judah; Revised v,Jiich aliall be ,hepherd of my people Israel Version omits in (&JB.\,iµ. -yij 'Iov6a). (Revised Version). In this quotation from "Bethlehem.Judah" would have presented Micah v. 2 notice the following ve.rie.tions no difficulty, for a town wae often dis- from the Hebrew, and practically from the tinguished by the apposition of the name of LXX.: (1) "Land of Judah" for "Ephra- the district in which it was ei tnated ; e.g. tah "; an nnimportant change in the terms Re.moth-Gilead, Kedeeh-Naphtali. It seems of definition. (2) "Art in no wise least" best to explain the -yij as a mere expansion for " which art little to be"; e. verbal con- of"Juda.h" (cf. l Mace. v. 68, /f(c.,,,-ov-yijv tra.diction probably, but also unimportant, lr.>.>.04>v,\ii,v, where probably the thought wae as the thought of the context in Micah ie of Ashdod-Philistia). It is, however, possible Bethlehem's greatness. (3) "Princes" for bhat -yij is here need in the sense of "the "thousands." This may be due {a) to a town and its surrounding district, over which different pointing of the Hebrew, 'P.?~:;i for district, it is to be observed, Herod ex- tended his massacre (verse 16)" (Hum- ~P.~~1 (cf. the rabbinic commentary, 'Meizud. phrey, in loc.). Zion.'), or (b) to understanding 'P.?~~ as Ver. 7.-Then Herod, when he had privily " families" ( J udg. vi. 15; cf. Revised Version called the Wise Men. Secrecy was doubly margin), and then concentrating the family necessary. He would not publicly commit in its hee.d. (4) "For out of thee shall himself to acknowledging the rights of the come fo1th e. governor, which shall be new King, e.nd he would give no opportunity shepherd of my people Israel" for "out of for others to warn the Child's parents of the thee ehaU one come forth unto me that is to dangerous interest that Herod was ta.king be ruler in Israel." This is a paraphrase, in him. Duplicity was very characteristio with e. paraphraetic addition from 2 Sam. of Herod; cf. his asea.seination of Arietobnlus ~- 2 (vii. 7), in order to distinctly identify the high priest (Josephus, 'Ant.,' xv. 3. 3), the ruler with Meeeia.h. Nothing is com- and hie aUnring his son Antipater home to moner in Jewish authors than the eilent death (ibid., xvi i. 5. I). Inquired of them conjunction of qnotationa from separate con- diligently; learned of them carefully (Re- texts. In this case the thought of the vised Version); "lemed of hem bisili"(Wick- shepherd in Micah v. 4 made the addition liffe); '1,1<plf3o,rr,v ,rap' a.?rrwv. The stress is :from Samuel the more easy. It muet aleo not upon Herod's careful questioning, but be noticed that the reference of the pe.a- on the exact information that he obtained. l!Bge in Micah to Christ is fully homo out What time the star appeared. Although by Jewish writers. Thongh •they generaUy this is not the literal translation, it ml\y, explain the rest of the verse as referring perhaps, represent the sense of the original to the long lapse of time from David (-rllv xp&vov Tov 4>a,11oµlvou a.rr-r{pos ), the par- ii.imself, they understand the ruler to be ticiple characterizing the star in its moat Meaaiah. But it is not nsnal with Jewish important relation-its appearance, and the interpreters to understand the reference to words being treated as a compound expres- Bethlehem as implying the place of Mea- sion (cf. John xii. 9, 12). Herod supposed siah's own birth. '.rhey genemlly take it that the birth of the Dabe was synchronous a.a referring to the home of David, Meseiah'a with the first appearance of the star. The ancestor. And this ie the more naturol translation, however, of the Revised Version meaning of the prophecy. The quotation, margin," the time of the star that appeared," ·however, from the Jerusalem Talmud better suits the exact wording (xp6vov, not already given on ver. 1, and the Targum of 1tri1p&v; 4>a.1voµlvov, not 4>a11{v-ros), the phrase Jonathan on Gen. xxxv. 21 (" the tower thus including bolh the first uppeu.runce of Edar-the place whence King Messiah and o.lso tho period of continul\nce (cf. is about to be revealed in the end of the Grotius, "non initium, sed continuitas "). days"), endoreo. tho thoroughly Jewish Dut it is difficult to see what Herod would character of the reply given to Herod (cf. have learned from this lo.tter particular. also John vii. 42). If it be asked why Soi;ne evon think that the slur we.s still St. Matthew does not give an exact o.nd visible (Plumptre; Weiss, •Matthew'), hut verbal rendering of the Hebrew, the answor in this case the joy of the Magi in ver. 10 may be made that he probably gives the is not satisfactorily e:xplo.ined. current form of its exposition. The high Ver. 8,-And he sent them to Bethlehem. priests and scribes would havo doubtless Thus n.newering their question (vor. 2). And quoted it accurately in the proceH of weigh- Hid, Go and ■ea.roh diligently for the young ing Micah'a statement, but when, as here, Child; nnd eearoh out carefully concerning, llA.TTHEW. • 34 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. LcH. u.1-28,