27:3 A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,
but vexation 1 by a fool is more burdensome 2 than the two of them.
2:16 When Herod 3 saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men 4 to kill all the children in Bethlehem 5 and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.
1 tn The subject matter is the vexation produced by a fool. The term כַּעַס (ca’as) means “vexation” (ASV); provocation” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); “anger” (KJV “wrath”) and usually refers to undeserved treatment. Cf. NLT “the resentment caused by a fool.”
2 sn The contrast is made between dealing with the vexation of a fool and physical labor (moving stones and sand). More tiring is the vexation of a fool, for the mental and emotional effort it takes to deal with it is more draining than physical labor. It is, in the sense of this passage, almost unbearable.
3 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.
4 tn Or “soldiers.”
5 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.