William Burkitt Notes and Observations - Matthew 2:17 - 2:17

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William Burkitt Notes and Observations - Matthew 2:17 - 2:17


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Observe here, The loud and bitter cry which the mothers of Bethlehem make for the death of their innocent children which were barbarously slain by the sword if Herod; here was lamentation, weeping, and great mourning made by Rachel, that is, by the women inhabiting in and about Bethlehem, where Rachel's sepulchre was: for the land about Bethlehem was called Rachel, from her sepulchre, so famous in those parts. Rachel here is not the name of a person, but of a place.

Observe, 2. The cause and reason of this cry and bitter lamentation: the mothers weep, not because the children are, but because they are not; they did not, with some wicked parents repine because they had lost them: mothers have the sharpest throes both in their children's births and burials. As children in their births are their mothers' Benjamins; so in their burial they are their mothers' Benonis, sons of sorrow.