And the king was deeply grieved, but because of his oaths and those who sat at the table with him, he could not refuse her.
Herod’s sorrow shows that his conscience was not yet completely dead. In his heart he did not want John’s death, but that sorrow was not enough to stop him from sin. He preferred to preserve his honor before those reclining at the table rather than obey the voice of conscience. This is a deep lesson. A person can feel pain in the face of sin, can inwardly understand that something is wrong, but if the fear of God does not outweigh the fear of people’s opinion, in the end he will carry out sin’s plan. His reasoning—the oaths and the guests—is not a true justification. It would have been better to break the foolish oath than to kill a righteous man. This verse shows how destructive the desire to keep honor in people’s eyes is when it takes precedence over the truth.