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Mat_2:20-21. Τεθνήκασι … ζητοῦντες ] is to be understood simply of Herod. The plural is very often used where the conception of a species is to be expressed, and then denotes the subject, not according to number, but chiefly according to the category to which it belongs. Reisig, ad Soph. Oed. C. 966, and Conject. in Aristoph. p. 58; Wunder, ad Soph. O. R. 361; Elwert, Quaestion. ad philolog. sacr. 1860, p. 10 f.; Winer, p. 165 [E. T. 219]. Frequently, particularly in the tragic writers, it contains a special emphasis, Hermann, ad Viger. p. 739, which also announces itself in the present passage. Others (Euth. Zigabenus) regard it as including Herod and his councillors or servants. Mat_2:19 is decisive against this view. Others (Gratz, B. Crusius, de Wette): the plural is put, because the words are taken from Exo_4:19. But there the plural is required not only by the πάντες , which stands in the text, but likewise by the whole connection. The resemblance to Exo_4:19 is either accidental, or, more probably, intentionally selected in the consciousness of being a historical parallel.
εἰς γ . Ἰσρ .] Note the extent and indefiniteness of the designation; Joseph could thus afterwards turn his steps to Galilee without acting in opposition to the instruction. Comp. 1Sa_13:19; Eze_11:17.
ζητεῖν τὴν ψυχήν ] áÌÇ÷ÌÅùÑ àÆçÎðÆôÆùÑ , seek the soul—that is, seek after one’s life (Rom_11:3). The present participle with the article used as a substantive, see Winer, p. 103 f. [E. T. 219]. Comp. Dissen, ad Dem. de cor. p. 238.
Herod died in Jericho (according to Gerlach, in Jerusalem) in the year 750, his genitals and bowels being eaten up of worms (Joseph. Bell. i. 33. 1, 5; Antt. xvii. 6. 5; Euseb. H. E. i. 68), in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, and in the seventieth of his age, Josephus, Antt. xvii. 8. 1, xvii. 9. 3. The tyrant became a prey to despair at his death, an attempt at suicide having failed in his last extremity.