Matthew Chapter 14 verse 5 Holy Bible
And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.
read chapter 14 in ASV
And he would have put him to death, but for his fear of the people, because in their eyes John was a prophet.
read chapter 14 in BBE
And [while] desiring to kill him, he feared the crowd, because they held him for a prophet.
read chapter 14 in DARBY
And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.
read chapter 14 in KJV
read chapter 14 in WBT
When he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.
read chapter 14 in WEB
and, willing to kill him, he feared the multitude, because as a prophet they were holding him.
read chapter 14 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude (cf. Luke 20:6). Mark has, "And Herodias set herself against him, and would have put him to death; and she could not; for Herod feared John." The more detailed account in Mark is doubtless the more exact. Perhaps the facts of the case were that, in the first heat of his resentment, Herod wished to kill John, but feared the anger of the people, and that afterwards, when he him in his power and Herodias still urged his death, Herod had himself learned to respect him. Observe (1) that it is quite impossible to suppose that either evangelist had the words of the other in front of him. The difference does not consist merely of addition or explanation; (2) that these are exactly the kind of verbal coincidences which might be expected to be found in two oral traditions starting from a common basis. For they counted him as a prophet (ὡς προφήτην αὐτὸν εϊχον); so Matthew 21:26 (cf. Matthew 21:46; Mark 11:32; Philippians 2:29).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) He feared the multitude.--St. Mark, whose narrative is here much the fullest of the three, adds that Herod himself "feared John," knowing "him to be a just man and a holy," and was much perplexed--this, rather than "did many things" is the true reading--and heard him gladly (Mark 6:20). There was yet a struggle of conscience against passion in the weak and wicked tetrarch, as there was in Ahab in his relations with Elijah. In Herodias, as in Jezebel, there was no halting between two opinions, and she, in the bitterness of her hate, thirsted for the blood of the prophet who had dared to rebuke her guilt.
