And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
Herod, it should seem by this question, was no stranger to the prophecies of scripture, and had heard how Israel expected a king, that should arise to deliver them from bondage. And though the children of Israel, no more than Herod, had the most distant idea that this deliverance was of a spiritual nature; yet it proves how general the expectation was at this time of the coming Savior. The dying Jacob had said, that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the Shiloh should come. Genesis 49:10. And now the intelligence is brought, and by wise men also, from the East, that the sovereign stranger is arrived. Daniel also had in his day mentioned the time. And from all calculations the time was fulfilled. Daniel 9:24-27. Add to these, Herod knew, that he was by birth an Edomite, and a stranger, and therefore by the laws of Israel could not reign by just right. Deuteronomy 17:15. See Psalms 2:1-6; Acts 4:27-28; John 18:37.