1612 | Matthew 2:8
the star had ap peared. 8 He sent them to Beth le hem and said,“ Go and search careful ly for the child. As soon as you find him, re port to me, so that I too may go and wor ship him.”
9 Af ter they had heard the king, they went
on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them un til it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On com ing to the house, they saw the child with his moth er Mary, and they bowed down and wor shiped him. a Then they opened their trea sures and present ed him with gifts b of gold, frank in cense and myrrh. 12 And hav ing been warned c in a dream d not to go back to Her od, they returned to their coun try by an oth er route.
The Escape to Egypt
13 When they had gone, an an gel e of the
Lord ap peared to Jo seph in a dream. f“ Get up,” he said,“ take the child and his mother and es cape to Egypt. Stay there un til I tell you, for Her od is go ing to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his
moth er dur ing the night and left for Egypt,
15 where he stayed un til the death of Her
2:11 a Isa 60:3 b Ps 72:10
2:12 c Heb 11:7 d ver 13, 19, 22;
Mt 27:19 2:13 e Ac 5:19 f ver 12, 19, 22
2:15 g Ex 4:22, 23; Hos 11:1 2:18 h Jer 31:15 2:19 i ver 12, 13, 22 od. And so was ful filled what the Lord had said through the proph et:“ Out of Egypt I called my son.” a g
16 When Her od re al ized that he had been
out wit ted by the Magi, he was fu ri ous, and he gave or ders to kill all the boys in Beth le hem and its vi cin i ty who were two years old and un der, in ac cor dance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
17 Then what was said through the proph et
Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18“ A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” b h
The Return to Nazareth
19 Af ter Her od died, an an gel of the Lord
ap peared in a dream i to Jo seph in Egypt
20 and said,“ Get up, take the child and his
moth er and go to the land of Is ra el, for those who were try ing to take the child’ s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his
moth er and went to the land of Is ra el.
22 But when he heard that Ar che la us was
a 15 Hosea 11:1 b 18 Jer. 31:15
2:8 Bethlehem. It is perhaps six miles( nine kilometers) from Jerusalem, perhaps not much more than a threehour journey for the caravan. 2:11 bowed down. Prostration was a way that Persians venerated rulers as well as deities. Magi could be Zoroastrian dualists, but in this period may have still been polytheists( worshipers of multiple gods). gold, frankincense and myrrh. Frankincense and myrrh mostly came from southern Arabia and Somaliland, and thus were very expensive. People often used these spices in royal courts and other lavish settings( cf. Ps 72:10; Isa 60:6). 2:12 warned in a dream. Magi were known for their reported ability to interpret dreams. Because their large caravan could have been visible during the day from Herod’ s nearby fortress Herodium, they presumably left under cover of night. Herod would expect them to return to Jerusalem, and from there to follow a road that would take them to the north and the east. Instead, they travel southward toward Hebron, then north along a coastal road or east along a caravan route. 2:13 Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. In one Jewish tradition, a dream warned Moses’ father to protect him from Pharaoh. escape to Egypt. A large Jewish community already lived in Egypt. Alexandria, a Greek-founded city in the northern delta region of Egypt, included perhaps the largest Jewish community outside Judea and Galilee. Perhaps one-third of Alexandria was Jewish, so the family could easily find refuge there. Further, if they had means to transport safely even some of the gold and spices( v. 11) they would have means to support themselves for a long period of time. 2:15 what the Lord had said through the prophet. In context, Hos 11:1 describes God bringing Israel as his“ son” from Egypt. The context, however, also goes on to speak of a new exodus, when God would save his people from captivity( Hos 11:5,11; on the new exodus, see also note on Mt 3:3). Because Jesus identifies with and recapitulates the history of his people( see note on 1:1), the principles in passages about the exodus, captivity( v. 18) and testing in the wilderness( 4:1 – 11) apply also to him. 2:16 gave orders to kill all the boys. Herod acts here in keeping with what we know of his character from other sources( see the article“ Herod the Great,” p. 1610). The actual size of ancient Bethlehem is unclear, but some estimate perhaps 20 boys under the age of two were killed. Jewish people considered abandoning or killing babies a pagan practice, conspicuously associated with evil kings such as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The most widely known example, however, was Pharaoh in the OT( Ex 1:16,22). In this narrative, the pagan Magi worship the true king, whereas the Jewish ruler acts like a pagan one.( For Matthew’ s interest in Gentiles, see the Introduction to Matthew: Provenance and Date; see also 28:19.) 2:17 – 18 Matthew quotes from Jer 31:15; Matthew undoubtedly knew that the context calls Israel God’ s“ son”( Jer 31:20) and goes on to promise a new covenant( Jer 31:31 – 34). Jer 31:15 depicts Rachel weeping as her descendants are carried into captivity in the exile. Matthew would have known that Rachel’ s tomb was near Bethlehem( Ge 35:19); like Israel’ s exile, the slaughter of Bethlehem’ s infants is a tragedy, but one that could not prevent the ultimate promise of God’ s restoration in the new covenant. 2:20 go to the land of Israel... those who were trying to take the child’ s life are dead. The angel’ s promise here evokes Ex 4:19: Moses can return to Egypt because those who sought his life have died. Jesus here is thus like Moses, Israel’ s deliverer— and, ominously, Judea has become like Egypt in Moses’ day. 2:22 Archelaus was reigning. A few days before Herod died in 4 BC, Archelaus, his son by a Samaritan wife,