Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 2:17-18

"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; And she would not be comforted, because they are not." — Matthew 2:17-18 (ASV)

Our Prince steps along a pathway paved with prophecies. Yet see what trouble attends His early days! The weeping prophet foretells the wailing over the innocents. He is the innocent cause of the death of many innocents. Men say that religion has been the cause of cruelty and bloodshed. Honesty should compel them to admit, that not religion, but opposition to religion, has done this. What! Blame Jesus because Herod sought to murder Him and therefore made so many mothers weep over their dead babies!

What three drops of gall are these—“lamentation, and weeping and great mourning”! The triple mixture is all too common. Our Rachels still weep, but holy women who know the Lord Jesus no longer say about their little ones that “they are not.” They know that their children are, and they know where they are, and they expect to meet them again in glory. Surely, if these women had only known, they might have been comforted by the fact that though their little ones were slain, the Children’s Friend had escaped and still lived to be the Savior of all who die before committing actual transgression.

It must have been a very sorrowful day in Bethlehem; you can imagine the grief that filled the hearts of the mothers there. There is Herod, who acts the hypocrite, and tries to slay Christ at the beginning, and there is Judas at the end, who acts the hypocrite too, and betrays his Lord. Thus, the life of Christ is begun and ended in sorrow.