Took counsel (Good News Translation “made plans”) translates a verb which appears only here in the Gospel of Matthew, though a related noun form is used in 12.14; see comment there.

By stealth of Revised Standard Version and An American Translation is certainly not everyday English. The primary meaning of the noun stealth is “deceit” or “treachery,” which is the basis for “by some trick” of New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, and New American Bible; “by some stratagem” (Barclay). Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch prefer to use the adverb “secretly.”

Kill him is translated “put him to death” by Good News Translation to indicate that the nature of the death is that of legal execution rather than of murder. New Jerusalem Bible is even better: “have him put to death.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .