Then Herod secretly called the wise men and inquired of them exactly what time the star had appeared.
This verse reveals Herod’s cunning and hypocrisy: he secretly summons the Magi, as though to understand the fulfillment of the prophecy, but in reality to carry out his conspiratorial purpose. He wished to learn the time of the star’s appearing not in order to recognize the heavenly sign, but to calculate the age of the child Jesus. His step shows the attempt of a sinful man to control what God ordains.