But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. (Matthew 22:7)
Literally, “bands of soldiers,” rather than large “armies.”
Hebrew narrative style often follows a topical order rather than a strictly chronological one (see p. 274; see on
Gen. 25:19; Ex. 16:33 etc.).
Doubtless an allusion to the fall of Jerusalem to the legions of Rome in A.D. 70 (see
Matt. 24:15; Luke 21:20 p. 77).