Anne Catherine Emmerich · 81 of 113

XVI. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT AND ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST IN THE DESERT · 3. JERUSALEM. HEROD’S PREPARATIONS FOR THE MURDER OF THE CHILDREN.

[February 26 th:] I still see Herod exceedingly uneasy, just as he was when the three kings asked him about the newborn King of the Jews. I saw him taking counsel with several old scribes, who read from very long parchment scrolls, fastened on rods, which they had brought with them. I saw, too, that the soldiers who had been given new clothes two days ago were sent to Bethlehem and to various places round Jerusalem. I think they were sent to occupy the places whence the children were to be brought by their unsuspecting mothers to Jerusalem. The soldiers were intended to prevent any insurrection when the reports of the massacre reached the children’s homes.