Verse 3 Was troubled. This was old King Herod, the father and founder of the Herod family, of which three generations appear in the sacred history. He was a man of great talents, but distinguished still more for his cruelties and crimes. In the course of his life, he had brought many persons to a violent death, whom he had suspected of conspiring against his reign; and among others, his wife and several of his own sons. And now, though quite an old man, his jealous and suspicious temper was aroused by hearing that an infant king of the Jews had been born,--supposing that he was to be a temporal prince, and of course that his own throne was in danger.