THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW - Chapter 14 - Verse 6

Verses 6-13. See also Mr 6:21-29. But when Herod's birthday was kept. Kings were accustomed to observe the day of their birth with much pomp, and commonly also by giving a feast to their principal nobility. See Ge 40:20. Mark adds, that this birthday was kept by making a supper to his "lords, high captains, and chief estates in Galilee." That is, to the chief men in office. High captains means, in the original, commanders of thousands, or of a division of a thousand men.

The daughter of Herodias. That is, Salome, her daughter by her former husband. This was a violation of all the rules of modesty and propriety. One great principle of all eastern nations is to keep their females from public view. For this purpose they are confined in a particular part of the house, called the harem. See Barnes "Mt 9:2".

If they appear in public, it is always with a veil so closely drawn that their faces cannot be seen, No modest woman would have appeared in this manner before the court; and it is probable, therefore, that she partook of the dissolute principles of her mother. It is also probable that the dance was one well known in Greece, the lascivious and wanton dance of the Ionics.

{2} "danced before them" or, "in the midst"