Kill The Boy

------------------/Kill The Boy: Herod's Thoughts After Dismissing The Magi From His Royal Court [These are MY Christmas Carols Pt 3]

For too long Ive waited
sat idly by as insignificance either admonished me
to wait my turn to rule, for many years, or worse yet
in bitter jealousy consigned me to die an ignominious death
as it commissioned droves of conspirators to make attempts at my
life, unabashedly and dishonorably trying to steal away
my right to rule, either through allied conquests
or through surreptitious poisoning of all my hopes and dreams;
of establishing a long lasting fruitful aristocracy (for the good of Judea)
showing no mercy
and I have the scars (Antipater, Phasael) to prove it
and I swear to God there will not be another
Antigonus stirring up trouble galvanizing another cabal
of wicked men desirous of scandalous mass assassination
me first, then my sons (is there anything else of worth left?)
and ruinous sabotage of the legacy I wish to leave behind
all Ive ever known my whole life is madness, plotting, colluding
deceit and baneful macabre suffering
and chronic paranoia that whispers "Hades" in my ear
so that I wake up screaming to the consternation of my wife
and this boy
this prophecy about a coming ruler can be interpreted no other way
than: ominously unwanted (my own demise)
there are enough men with enough hubris in this world
that we don't need to entertain thoughts of another
and for all the torment
and the lies I've been told
the claims of virtue about him are dubious at best
Antony and Octavian, and Herod graciously subordinate
are all that Judeans need to know right now
if they want change, there will be none; assuredly
of that I have seen enough and drunk enough of its blood
to be sufficiently jaded by it
cries for a savior fall on deaf ears
though suffering, salvation for Jews will have to wait
this is my time to wield power unabated



-------------Matthew 2:1-13
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
"'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.'"
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."