governments, and by his Roman masters was accounted an able ruler. Among his acts of cruelty was the slaughter of the babes of Bethlehem, a murder planned and executed in the hope of including among the victims the Child Jesus.[1]
Such is the character of the man who proposed to replace the time-worn Temple of Zerubbabel by a new and more splendid structure. Can it be thought that a proffered gift from such a donor could be acceptable to the Lord? David had aforetime offered to build a House to the Lord, but had been restrained, for he was a man of blood. Herod's purpose in the great undertaking was that of aggrandizing himself and the nation, rather than the rendering of homage to Jehovah. His proposition to rebuild or restore the Temple on a scale of increased magnificence was regarded with suspicion and received with disfavor by the Jews, who feared that were the ancient edifice demolished, the arbitrary monarch might abandon his plan and the people would be left without a Temple. To allay these fears the king proceeded to reconstruct and restore the old edifice, part by part, directing the work so that at no time was the Temple service seriously interrupted. So little of the ancient structure was allowed to stand, however, that the Temple of Herod must be re-
- ↑ See Matt. 2:1-10, 16-18. "A little child made the great Herod quake upon his throne. When he knew that the magi were come to hail their King and Lord, and did not stop at his palace, but passed on to a humbler roof, and when he found that they would not return to betray this child to him, he put to death all the children in Bethlehem that were under two years old. The crime was great; but the number of the victims, in a little place like Bethlehem, was small enough to escape special record among the wicked acts of Herod from Josephus and other historians, as it had no political interest."—Smith's Comprehensive Dictionary of the Bible, art. "Jesus Christ," page 466.
