“For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison Joh as a favor to Herodias. She had been his brother, Philip’s wife, but Herod had married her. John had been telling Herod, “It is against God’s law to marry your brother’s wife.: So Herodias bore a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But without Herod’s approval she was powerless, for Herod respected John; and knowing that he was a good an holy man, he protected him. Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with Joh, but even so, he liked to listen to him.
Herodias’s chance finally came on Herod’s birthday. He gave a party for his high government officials, and the leading citizens of Galilee. Then his daughter, also named Herodias, cam and performed a dance that greatly pleased Herod and his guests. “Ask me for anything you like,” the king said to the girl,”and I will give you whatever you ask, up to half my kingdom!”
She went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?”
Her mother told her, “Ask for the head of John the Baptist, right now, on a tray!”
So the girl hurried bak to the king and told him, “I want the head of John the Baptist, right now, on a tray!”
Then the king deeply regretted what he had said: but because of the vows he had mad in front of his guests, he couldn’t refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner to the prison to cut off John’s head and bring it to him. The soldier beheaded John in teh prison, brought his head on a try, and gave it to the girl, who took it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard what had happened, they came to get his body and buried it in a tomb. (vv 17-29, NLT)