His disciples came. One thing only remained to complete the woman's cruelty. It was, to leave the corpse of the holy man unburied; for there is reason to believe that, when his disciples performed this duty, the attendants of the tyrant had thrown out the corpse. Though the honor of burial is of no importance to the dead, yet it is the will of the Lord that we should observe this ceremony as a token of the last resurrection; and therefore God was pleased with the carefulness which was manifested by the disciples, when they came to commit to the tomb the body of their master. Moreover, it was an attestation of their piety; for in this way they declared that the doctrine of their master continued to have a firm hold of their hearts after his death. This confession was therefore worthy of praise, more especially as it was not without danger; for they could not do honor to a man who had been put to death by the executioner without exciting against themselves the rage of the tyrant.

And when his disciples heard of it,.... That is, when the disciples of John heard of this barbarous execution of their master,
they came; to the prison in the castle of Machaerus,
and took up his corpse; the trunk of his body; for his head was carried away, to glut the revenge of Herodias;
and laid it in a tomb; See Gill on Matthew 14:12.

And when his disciples heard of it--that is, the Baptist's own disciples.
they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb--"and went and told Jesus" (Matthew 14:12). If these disciples had, up to this time, stood apart from Him, as adherents of John (Matthew 11:2), perhaps they now came to Jesus, not without some secret reflection on Him for His seeming neglect of their master; but perhaps, too, as orphans, to cast in their lot henceforth with the Lord's disciples. How Jesus felt, or what He said, on receiving this intelligence, is not recorded; but He of whom it was said, as He stood by the grave of His friend Lazarus, "Jesus wept," was not likely to receive such intelligence without deep emotion. And one reason why He might not be unwilling that a small body of John's disciples should cling to him to the last, might be to provide some attached friends who should do for his precious body, on a small scale, what was afterwards to be done for His own.