Matthew 14:11 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And his head was brought in a charger— The head of the prophet, whose rebukes had awed the king in his loosest moments, and whose exhortations had often excited him to virtuous actions, was immediately brought pale and bloody in a charger, and given to the daughter of Herodias, in presence of the guests; which proves that the prison in which they confined the Baptist was at hand, in Tiberias, where Herod kept his court, and not in Machoerus Castle, as the interpolater of Josephus affirms. Salome, forgetting the tenderness of her sex, and the dignity of her rank, with a steady cruelty, agreeable to her relation to so bad a woman, received the bloody present, and carried it to her mother; who enjoyed the whole pleasure of revenge, and feasted her eyes with the sight of her enemy's head, now rendered silent and harmless. St. Jerome tells us, that Herodias treated the head in a very disdainful manner, pulling out the tongue, which she imagined had injured her, and piercing it with a needle: thus they gratified themselves in the indulgence of their lusts, and triumphed in the murder of this holy prophet, till the righteous judgment of God overtook them all: for Providence interested itself very remarkably in the revenge of this murder on all concerned; as Herod's army was defeated in a war, occasioned by marrying Herodias (see the last note); and both he and Herodias, whose ambition occasioned his ruin, were afterwards driven from their kingdom, and died in banishment at Lyons in Gaul; and if any credit may be given to Nicephorus, Salome,—whowasafterwardsinfamousforalife suitable to this beginning,—fell into the ice, as she was walking over it, which, closing suddenly, cut off her head. See Whitby, Doddridge, and Univ. History, vol. 10: p. 632. 8vo.