And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
Ver. 5. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem] Lo, how readily and roundly, out of the Scriptures, they could answer to this capital question; giving such signs of the Messias as did evidently agree to Jesus Christ. Yet were they for their obstinace so infatuated, that when God showed them the man to whom their own signs agree, they cannot allow him. Unless the Lord give a mind as well as means, sight as well as light, and irradiate the organ as well as the object, we grope as blind men in the dark,Isaiah 59:10; we err in heart, as not knowing God's ways, yet cannot wander so wide as to miss hell: to original blindness we add actual stubbornness, Psalms 95:8, the devil holding his black hand (as it were) afore our eyes, that we may not see and be saved, Acts 26:19 .