Herod wanted to know exactly where to find the child. The wise men's question had alarmed him (Matthew 2:3), and he turned to the men who knew the Scriptures best. Barnes says Herod called them "professedly" to inquire about the Messiah's birth. Gill notes that "demanded" means he asked them with authority, and that his pretence was to satisfy the wise men while his real aim was to find the child and destroy Him. Herod's later actions confirm this. He secretly asked the wise men when the star appeared (Matthew 2:7), and when they did not return, he killed the children of Bethlehem "from two years old and under" (Matthew 2:16).

The chief priests and scribes answered: "In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet" (Matthew 2:5). They quoted the promise that out of Bethlehem "shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel" (Matthew 2:6; Micah 5:2). Matthew Henry notes they did not need long to answer and did not disagree. Herod then used the answer, sending the wise men to Bethlehem and telling them to "bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also" (Matthew 2:8).

Barnes explains that the chief priests were the heads of the twenty-four groups into which David had divided the priestly families. The scribes, he says, were men skilled in the law, probably the learned men or lawyers of the nation. Barnes and Gill both see this gathering as the Sanhedrin, the great council of the Jewish nation.

"Christ" (Greek Christos) means the Anointed One, the Messiah. Herod connected the wise men's "King of the Jews" with the promised Christ. The verb for "demanded" (epunthaneto) is in a tense that pictures ongoing action: Herod was pressing them for an answer. Barnes adds that Bethlehem was a small town south of Jerusalem, called the city of David because David was born there.

God had answered Herod's question centuries before he asked it. Micah named Bethlehem as the place from which Israel's ruler would come (Micah 5:2), and the scribes could recite it on demand. Even a king who wanted to destroy the child had to hear God's Word about Him. Herod's scheme could not change what God had already said, and God protected the child by warning the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod (Matthew 2:12).

The passage also shows that knowing the answer is not the same as coming to Christ. The priests and scribes knew where the Messiah would be born, yet the text records only the wise men going to Bethlehem. Matthew Henry puts it sharply: "Many that we think should direct us to Christ are themselves strangers to him."