Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

(18–19a) In Roman law, a guard who allowed his prisoner to escape was subject to the same penalty the escaped prisoner would have suffered. No wonder that in the morning when Peter’s escape was discovered, “there was a great commotion among the soldiers.” When Herod heard of Peter’s escape, he instituted a search and cross-examined the guards. Frustrated by his lack of success, he ordered the guards to be taken out to execution.

(19b–20) The situation Luke describes in these verses is not entirely clear. Caesarea, with its excellent man-made harbor , was still nominally the provincial capital of Palestine. Though we have no other record of conflict between Herod and Tyre and Sidon, Herod became enraged with the people of these two cities; and they, in turn, sent a delegation to ask for peace, using in some way the good offices of Blastus, King Agrippa’s personal servant, for their purposes. Agrippa appears to have left Jerusalem for Caesarea shortly after the Jewish Passover, perhaps because of frustration over Peter’s escape.