. . . Isa
45:14 also speaks of the nations “bowing down” and “making supplication” to
Jerusalem. The Hebrew of “bowing down2 is the Hithpa. of שָׁחָה, translated by
the LXX as proskyneô. The same Greek verb is found in Matt 2:2 and 11 of
the Magis’ “doing obeisance” to the newborn king, Jesus, and in v 8 of King
Herod’s deceitful desire to do the same. The threefold mention of the motif of
obeisance shows how important it was for Matthew. (Robert David Aus, “The Magi
at the Birth of Cyrus, and the Magi at Jesus’ Birth in Matt 2:1-12,” in Barabbas
and Esther and Other Studies in the Judaic Illumination of Earliest Christianity
[Studies in the History of Judaism; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992], 100)
