When the king heard it, he became angry and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
The king’s anger shows God’s righteous judgment toward those who rejected His mercy and persecuted His servants. The sending of the army and the burning of the city, in the view of many commentators (Matthew Henry, John Gill, Albert Barnes), symbolize the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, when it was devastated by the Romans. This is interpreted by the authors I mentioned as a punishment for the Jews’ disobedience and rejection of the Messiah. This verse emphasizes that God’s patience has a limit, and when people continually reject His call, righteous judgment becomes unavoidable.