Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 12:19

"And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the guards, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and tarried there." — Acts 12:19 (ASV)

Commanded that they should be put to death.—Literally, that they should be led away—i.e., to execution. The phrase was half-technical, half-euphemistic. Capital punishment was, according to Roman usage, the almost inevitable penalty for allowing a prisoner to escape. So at Philippi, the jailer, when he thought the prisoners had escaped, was on the point of anticipating the sentence by suicide (Acts 16:28). See Note on Acts 27:42.