BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 263

born. Herod knew the Jews had faith in the prophecies of
their great seers. The rolls of the prophets were brought,
and after a diligent search through the brief prophecies of
Micah, one of the so-called minor prophets, who had been in
his grave more than seven hundred years, they came upon
these remarkable words:

“ But thou Bethlehem Ephratah,
Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of thee shall come forth unto Me,
Who is to be Ruler in Israel.
Whose goings forth have been from old

From everlasting!
* * * *

“And he shall stand and feed in the name of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God:
And they shall abide,
For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.”

It is hardly likely that Herod set much store by the
words of the prophets of Israel. But it is quite clear that
Herod was very much afraid. He was as crafty as he was
cruel. He began at once to plan and plot. He managed to
have a secret talk with these Persian astrologers, and
wanted to know of them particularly what time the star
appeared. We have no detailed record of the conversation
that took place between the King and the Wise Men. It
would appear, however, that the more he inquired the more
troubled he became. What the Wise Men had to say only
served to increase his anxiety. He felt quite sure that
there must be something of serious import in all these
strange circumstances. Instead of dismissing the whole
affair as the dream of superstitious men; instead of laughing
scornfully at the seriousness and earnestness of these wan-
derers from the East, he was determined to sift this thing
to the bottom, and so “he sent them to Bethlehem,” as