Now he for and Herod, A.V. and T.R.; and for but, A.V.; they asked for for desired, A.V.; fed from for nourished by, A.V. Highly displeased ( θυμομαχῶν); only here in the New Testament, but used by Polybius, as well as the kindred word ψυχομαχεῖν, in the sense of having a hostile spirit against any one, maintaining a strong resentment.
It describes a state of feeling which may exist before war, during war, and after war when only a hollow peace has been made. Tyro and Sidon at this time were semi-independent cities under the Roman supremacy.
The occasion of Herod's displeasure is not known. Chamberlain; literally, the officer over his bedchamber—his chief groom of the chambers—an office which would give him easy access to the king's private ear.
Was fed. This commerce, by which Palestine supplied Tyro and Sidon with wheat in return for timber, was as old as the time of Solomon at least (1 Kings 5:9, 1 Kings 5:11); see too Ezekiel 27:17, and the decree of Caligula, in which he speaks of the large exportation of corn to Sidon from the Jewish harbor of Joppa ('Ant.
Jud.,' 14. 10.6).