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when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being 12 warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord 13 appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying: Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child 14 and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt; and was 15 there until the death of Herod; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying: "Out of

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sance, as they would to any royal personage. There was no religious homage paid in the act. -Presented. An oriental custom, still observed. Those who would pay honor to kings, magistrates, and persons of high dignity, carry to them costly gifts. 2 Chron. ix. 1; Is. Ix. 6. Gold and frankincense and myrrh. 2 Chron. ix. 14. These were productions of Arabia and other oriental countries. They were timely aids to the not rich Joseph, for his succeeding journey into a foreign land. - Frankincense. A valuable aromatic gum, used in perfumes, sacrifices, and medicines. It exudes from incisions made in a tree during the summer. Myrrh. A vegetable production of the gum or resin kind, of a bitter taste, employed in anointing, perfuming, and in embalming the dead. John xix. 39. It is noticeable that the same substance which was giver as a birthpresent to Jesus was also prepared for his burial.

12. Should not return to Herod. Else the life of Jesus would have been taken, unless some other interposition had been made. The will of God could be communicated in a dream as well as in any other way.

13. Egypt. During their troubles at home, the Jews had flocked in

great numbers to that country, where

they enjoyed toleration. Thus, by a strange vicissitude in human affairs, the land of their fathers' bondage became their asylum of liberty, and the refuge of their endangered Messiah. Several circumstances combined to recommend this country for the purpose for which Joseph fled to it. It was free from Herod's jurisdiction. Its border was near, only about sixty miles southwest from Bethlehem. Joseph and his family would find sympathy among their countrymen. the gifts of the wise men, they had been furnished with the means of subsistence and comfort while away from home and their customary occupations. - Herod will seek. This prediction was afterwards fulfilled. Joseph seems not to have been aware of any hostility to the child on Herod's part, until he was divinely acquainted with it.

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14. By night. To conceal his departure, and escape from danger as soon as possible. There is no trustworthy history or tradition of the events that befel them during their sojourn in Egypt.

15. Death of Herod. Probably their residence there was short, as Herod is supposed to have died in the second year after Christ's birth.

16 Egypt have I called my Son." Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth; and sent forth and slew 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 17 wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jere18 my the prophet, saying: "In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weep

See ver. 16.-Prophet. Hos. xi. 1. Hosea clearly refers here to the past history of the Israelites. He utters no prediction. Matthew quotes his words by way of allusion or accommodation, not as the accomplishment of a prophecy, for there was none. He says there was a striking coincidence between God's calling the children of Israel, and his son Jesus Christ, out of Egypt.

16. Mocked. Was trifled with, or deceived. Exceeding wroth. Angry beyond measure. Josephus describes him as a man of most ungovernable passions.- Slew all the chil,dren, &c. If this had been related of any other man, it would have seemed incredible, but it accorded with Herod's character. For he had put to death a brother-in-law, one of his wives, and three of his children, besides great numbers of the Jews at different times and under different pretexts. The slaughter of the Innocents harmonized therefore with the diabolical character of this man of blood. It is likely that only a small number suffered. The masculine gender of the noun in the original, and the circumstances of the case indicate that none but male infants were killed. Bethlehem was not a large village, and it has been conjectured that the number of victims was somewhere between ten and fifty.. Coasts. Borders, adjacent places. Theo years old and under. Herod thought in this way to insure the destruction

of the helpless babe that had stirred up his fear and wrath. According to the time, &c. Not that he had been making inquiries for two years of the Magians, or had thus long awaited their return, but such as had entered upon the second year suffered together with those under that age, which would accord with the information he had derived from the wise men, and insure, as he thought, the death of the distinguished child.

17. The grief of the mothers of Bethlehem, bereft of their infants, reminds Matthew of a parallel poetical scene in Jeremiah xxxi. 15. The description of the old prophet was fulfilled, or verified, or made good. In this manner the New Testament writers not unfrequently quote from the Old.

18. Rama. This was a city in the tribe of Benjamin, not far from Bethlehem in Judah. As Rachel was the mother of Benjamin, she is introduced as most nearly concerned in the calamities of her posterity. It is only by way of accommodation, that this passage, originally relating to what transpired in the tribe of Benjamin, when the Israelites were carried into captivity, is used to describe what took place in Judah in the days of Herod. There was great force and beauty in the introduction of this poetical figure, and it chimed exquisitely with the feelings and associations of the Jews, for whose special edification Matthew

ing for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of 19 the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying: 20 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. And he arose, and took the young child and his 21 mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard 22 that Archelaus did reign ́in Judea, 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. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth ; 23

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was writing. - Lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning. As if to express the abjectness of grief by adding word to word. Rachel weeping for her children. The tears of the living were not enough to bewail their disasters. Jeremiah calls to his assistance those of the departed, and particularly of Rachel, whose tomb was in the route along which they were led captive to Babylon, and who is represented as rising from the dead to bewail the fate of her posterity. What Jewish heart would not be thrilled by this allusion and quotation from Jeremiah by the Evangelist! · Because they are not. Because they are no more, are dead. This is one among many instances of the touching simplicity characteristic of the Scrip

tures.

19. Herod was dead. The tyrant, after a reign of forty years, died of a horrible, loathsome disease. It seemed as if the pains of all he had killed were concentrated in his own person. Yet the ruling passion was strong even in death; and a few days before he expired he ordered his son Antipater to be executed, and imprisoned the chiefs of the Jewish nation, with the command, which happily was not executed, that they should all be destroyed, in order that sincere grief might be felt

at his funeral. His kingdom was partitioned among his sons; Archelaus obtaining Judea, Samaria, and Idumea; Antipas, Galilee and Peræa; and Philip, Trachonitis, GauIonitis, and Batanea.

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20. They are dead. plural is here used, as is sometimes the case, for the singular number, which is the opinion of Winer, and the idea is that Herod was dead, the chief foe of Jesus; or that both Herod and his son Antipater, who was heir apparent to the throne, were dead.

21. Young child. The residence in Egypt did not extend probably beyond a few months. —The land of Israel. This comprised not only the dominions of Archelaus, but also Galilee and other provinces.

22. Archelaus. He succeeded to the throne by his father's will, and received the confirmation of his power from the Roman emperor, Augustus. He proved such a tyrant, that, being accused by the Jews to the emperor, he was banished, after a reign of seven years, to Vienna in Gaul, where he died. - He turned aside: to Galilee which was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas.

23. Nazareth. A small town in lower Galilee, situated in a hilly region: down one of the precipices

that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets : He shall be called a Nazarene.

CHAPTER III.

Ministry of John the Baptist.

IN those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilder

of which its inhabitants endeavored to throw their townsman, Jesus Christ. Luke iv. 29. It is now a large village of three thousand inhabitants, and contains a convent and two churches. The prophets. There is no place in the prophets still extant, where this precise saying occurs. The prophets, however, represented the coming One as a suffering and despised, as well as a triumphant Messiah. Is. liii. To be a Nazarene was to bear an unhonored name. The guileless Nathanael could ask, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? The reputation of the place was bad. The idea then is, that, according to the tenor of those predictions usually supposed to refer to Christ, he became an inhabitant of a proverbially mean place, dwelt in humble life, and was despised and rejected by men.

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"It was undoubtedly a part of the plan of Providence to draw the Saviour from humble human circumstances, in order to render his divine authority the more conspicuous and unquestionable. It was thus made to appear that his words of wisdom could not have been learned from man, and that he must have been from God. He probably received little or no education during his early years; for the Jews asked,' How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?' Schools and instruction were not then universal as they are now, and Joseph was probably too poor to afford to his children a privilege which could be purchased only by the rich."

VOL. I.

CHAP. III.

1-12. For the parallel passages in the other Gospels see Mark i. 1-8; Luke iii. 1-18.

1. After the lapse of twenty-five or thirty years from the events recorded in the last chapter, the curtain is again drawn aside, and we behold a new scene. Jesus grown to manhood, and John, a new character, whose parentage and remarkable birth are related by Luke, now appear upon the stage of action; the Messiah and his Forerunner. In those days. A common introduction to Scriptural narration, used with considerable latitude of meaning. "At this period," or "about this time," not immediately after the events of the last chapter, but while Jesus lived at Nazareth. John the Baptist. Or, the Baptizer. So called, because it was peculiarly his office to baptize; and in order to distinguish him from the Evangelist and Apostle of the same name. John's mission was to prepare men for the ministry of Jesus, to call public attention to him as the Christ, and to furnish evidence of the justice of his claims by the fulfilment of prophecy. For an account of the origin of John, see Luke, chap. i. Matthew was writing to those who were already acquainted with the events of the age. Hence he leaves much to be explained by a reference to other sources..- - Preaching. Or, proclaiming, or crying or announcing as a herald, for so the word implies in the original. It suggests the idea that he delivered his message with great publicity, earnest

ness of Judea, and saying: Repent ye, for the kingdom of 2 heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the 3 prophet Esaias, saying: "The voice of one crying in the

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ness, and authority. The substance of the proclamation is recorded in the following verses. The wilder ness of Judea. A tract lying on the river Jordan and the Dead Sea, east of Jerusalem. The words "wilderness" and "desert are not to be taken in the Bible as always meaning regions totally without cultivation or inhabitants, but those thinly peopled, and comparatively barren; generally devoted to grazing. In Josh. xv. 61, 62, a wilderness is represented as having "six cities with their villages." Judea was the southern portion of Palestine. 2. The following words are to be understood as containing the burden of his preaching, the general outline of his addresses, which were adapted to different times, places, and persons. Luke iii. 11–18. — Repent ye. Rather, Reform yourselves. The exhortation involved in itself more than mere sorrow for sin. It implied not only regret for the past, but amendment for the future not only that the wound was to be probed, but healed. The reason why John seized upon this theme was, that the Jews had unfitted themselves by their worldliness and vices for the reception of the great coming Teacher. The professed believers in religion needed first to be renewed in holiness. Judgment must begin at the house of God. The Jewish people had suffered the fire of heaven to go out upon the altars of their hearts, and were cold, skeptical, and corrupt. Hence the key note of the Baptist's desert cry, the first blast of his trumpet echoing over the moral wilderness of Judea, was, REFORMATION. Jesus prolonged the note which John had struck. It has continued to resound to this

day, and must for ever, in a sinful world. It is the great theme for men and nations. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Or, better, the reign of God draws near. This is the persuasive for immediate repentance and reformation, that the Messiah was now coming. The kingdom of heaven, of God, of Christ, phrases suggested, perhaps, by Dan. ii. 44, vii. 13, 14, all refer to the same thing, the reign of the Messiah, or, in more modern phraseology, the Christian Religion, which came to rule over the hearts and lives of men, and bring them to an obedience to the moral Governor of the world, and thus establish a moral kingdom. For this spiritual reign Reformation was requisite; a far different preparation from that which the Jews contemplated; whose hearts, at the approach of the long expected Deliverer, savored more of ambition, revenge, and avarice, than of sentiments of good-will to man or piety to God, expecting, as they did, a temporal King, and not the Prince of Peace. So now the Gospel demands penitent hearts, and reformed lives, for its subjects. As an old writer says, "Thus must the way be made for Christ into every heart. Never will he enter that soul where the herald of repentance hath not been before him."

3. Prophet Esaias, i. e. Isaiah xl. 3. The Evangelist quotes from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament; hence there is a slight variation from our translation, which was made from the Hebrew. Isaiah undoubtedly spoke with reference to the return from the Babylonish captivity. Matthew applies the passage to the Forerunner of the Messiah. The voice, &c. The office

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