The Pharisees, according to Josephus, ultimately opposed Herod and thus in 4 BCE fell victims to his bloodthirstiness ("The Antiquities of the Jews, xvii. 2, § 4; 6, §§ 2–4).

Young students of the Torah smash the golden eagle over the main entrance of the Temple of Jerusalem after the Pharisee teachers claim that is a Roman symbol.

Herod has the students arrested, brought to trial, and punished.

The family of Boethus, whom Herod had raised to the high-priesthood, revives the spirit of the Sadducees, and henceforth the Pharisees will again have them as antagonists (The Antiquities of the Jews, xviii. 1, § 4).

Augustus in this year approves of the death penalty for Antipater, who Herod executes.

Having thus executed his sole heir, Herod again changes his will: Archelaus (from the marriage with Malthace) is to rule as king over Herod's entire kingdom, while Antipas (from Malthace) and Philip (from the fifth marriage with Cleopatra of Jerusalem) as Tetrarchs over Galilee and Peraea, also over Gaulanitis (Golan), Trachonitis (Hebrew: Argob), Batanaea (now Ard-el-Bathanyeh) and Panias.

Salome I is also given a small toparchy in the Gaza region.

Since the work of Emil Schürer in 1896 (Emil Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 5 vols. New York, Scribner’s, 1896) most scholars have agreed that Herod died at the end of March or early April in 4 BCE.

However, Schürer's consensus did not go unchallenged in the twentieth century, with several scholars endorsing 1 BCE as the year of Herod's death.

Evidence for the 4 BCE date is provided by the fact that Herod's sons, between whom his kingdom is divided, date their rule from 4 BCE, and Archslaus apparently also exercised royal authority during Herod's lifetime.

Josephus states that Philip the Tetrarch's death took place in 34 CE after a thirty-seven-year reign, in the twentieth year of Tiberius; he also writes that Herod's final illness was excruciating.

Modern scholars agree he suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia.

More recently, others report that the visible worms and putrefaction described in his final days are likely to have been scabies; the disease might have accounted for both his death and psychiatric symptoms.

Similar symptoms will attend the death of his grandson Agrippa I in CE 44.

Josephus also states that Herod was so concerned that no one would mourn his death, that he commanded a large group of distinguished men to come to Jericho, and he gave order that they should be killed at the time of his death so that the displays of grief that he craved would take place.

Fortunately for them, Herod's son Archelaus and sister Salome do not carry out this wish.

Archelaus is proclaimed king by the army, but declines to assume the title until he has submitted his claims to Augustus in Rome.

Before setting out, he quells with the utmost cruelty a sedition of the Pharisees, slaying nearly three thousand of them.

Herod's plans for the succession have to be ratified by Augustus because of Judea's status as a Roman client kingdom,

The three heirs therefore travel to Rome to make their claims, Antipas arguing he ought to inherit the whole kingdom and the others maintaining that Herod's final will ought to be honored.

Despite qualified support for Antipas from Herodian family members in Rome, who favor direct Roman rule of Judea but consider Antipas preferable to his brother, Augustus largely confirms the division of territory set out by Herod in his final will.

Archelaus has, however, to be content with the title of ethnarch rather than king.

Augustus allots to Archelaus the greater part of the kingdom (Judea and Idumea, which are Jewish, and Samaria, which is not).