Mary, Joseph and Jesus go to Egypt
13 After the men had gone away, Joseph had a dream. In the dream, he saw one of the Lord God's angels. The angel said to him, ‘Herod will look for the child, so that his soldiers can kill him. You must get up and take the child and his mother with you. Go immediately to Egypt. I will tell you when you can return again. You must remain there until then.’
14 So Joseph got up and he took the child and his mother with him. They started on the journey to Egypt that night. 15 They all remained in Egypt until Herod died. This happened so that the words of the prophet would become true. The Lord God had said by his prophet, ‘I have called my son to come out of Egypt.’
Herod's soldiers kill the baby boys in Bethlehem
16 When the wise men did not return to Herod, he was very angry. He knew that they had deceived him. So he sent his men to Bethlehem. He said to them, ‘Kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem. Kill the boys who live near there too. Kill all the boys who are two years old or younger than that.’ The wise men had told Herod how long ago they had first seen the special star. So he decided to kill the baby boys of that age. 17 In this way, these words that God's prophet Jeremiah spoke long ago became true:
18 ‘People heard a sad noise in Ramah.
Someone is weeping with a loud voice.
It is Rachel and she is weeping for her children.
Nobody can help her to stop weeping,
because her children are dead.’
