The punishment of this dreadful crime was not long delayed. A few years after the bloody deed, Herod was stricken with a most loathsome disease[1] and died in fearful torments. Then the angel of the Lord appeared again unto Joseph in Egypt during his sleep, and said: “Arise, take the Child and His Mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead that sought the life of the Child.”
Joseph, therefore, taking Mary and the Child, went back to the land of Israel, and retired into the parts of Galilee[2]. And He dwelt in Nazareth[3], that the word of the prophet might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.” In the peaceful retirement of that town the Child Jesus grew in wisdom and in grace before God and men. What a heaven on earth was that thrice-hallowed, though humble home in Nazareth!
COMMENTARY.
The Omniscience of God. God knew that in the morning Herod would send soldiers to Bethlehem, to slay the little boys under two years old; therefore He ordered St. Joseph to flee in the middle of the night. The Lord God knew also the moment of Herod’s death, as well as the evil disposition of his son and successor, Archelaus. He therefore warned St. Joseph not to return to Judaea, but to take up his abode at Nazareth in Galilee.
The Justice of God. Herod’s horrible disease and miserable death were evidently a punishment for his cruelty, and especially for his desire to kill the Child Jesus. And as Herod, in spite of his sufferings, persevered to the end in evil and impenitence, the torments of his illness were but a prelude to the eternal torments which awaited him.
- ↑ Disease. When he knew that he must die, Herod flew into a terrible rage, lie gave orders that, after his death, the principal men of the land should be executed, so that the people might have cause to regret his loss. Tormented by unbearable pain, he would, in his despair, have plunged a knife into his breast, had it not been snatched from him. Five days before he died, he had his eldest son, Antipater, executed. At last he died a miserable death, cursed by all the people.
- ↑ Galilee. He was “warned in sleep" not to go back to Bethlehem of Judaea, but to go instead to Nazareth of Galilee; for in Judaea and Samaria there now reigned Archelaus, a son of Herod, who was nearly as wicked as his father.
- ↑ Nazareth. Nazareth, situated six miles to the west of Mount Tabor, was and is a little town planted on the edge of a mountain. Not having taken any important part in the history of Israel, and not being even mentioned in the Old Testament, it was despised by the Jews. Here the Child Jesus found a safe retreat, for no one would dream of seeking the King of the Jews in such an insignificant place.
