Matthew 2:16-23

2:16 When Herod ¹  saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men ²  to kill all the children in Bethlehem ³  and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men. 2:17 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:

2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,

weeping and loud wailing, ⁴ 

Rachel weeping for her children,

and she did not want to be comforted, because they were ⁵  gone.” ⁶ 

The Return to Nazareth

2:19 After Herod ⁷  had died, an ⁸  angel of the Lord ⁹  appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 2:20 saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 2:21 So ¹⁰  he got up and took the child and his mother and returned to the land of Israel. 2:22 But when he heard that Archelaus ¹¹  was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, ¹²  he was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the regions of Galilee. 2:23 He came to a town called Nazareth ¹³  and lived there. Then what had been spoken by the prophets was fulfilled, that Jesus ¹⁴  would be called a Nazarene. ¹⁵ 

¹ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.

² tn Or “soldiers.”

³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

⁴ tc The LXX of Jer 38:15 (31:15 ET) has “lamentation, weeping, and loud wailing”; most later mss (C D L W 0233 ˹³ 33 Ï) have a quotation in Matthew which conforms to that of the LXX (θρῆνος καὶ κλαυθμός καὶ ὀδυρμός; qrhno" kai klauqmo" kai odurmo"). But such assimilations were routine among the scribes; as such, they typically should be discounted because they are both predictable and motivated. The shorter reading, without “lamentation and,” is thus to be preferred, especially since it cannot easily be accounted for unless it is the original wording here. Further, it is found in the better mss along with a good cross-section of other witnesses (א B Z 0250 ˹ pc lat co).

⁵ tn Grk “are”; the Greek text uses a present tense verb.

⁶ sn A quotation from Jer 31:15.

⁷ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. When Herod the Great died in 4 b.c., his kingdom was divided up among his three sons: Archelaus, who ruled over Judea (where Bethlehem was located, v. 22); Philip, who became tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis (cf. Luke 3:1); and Antipas, who became tetrarch of Galilee.

⁸ tn Grk “behold, an angel.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

⁹ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20.

¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s instructions.

¹¹ sn Archelaus took after his father Herod the Great in terms of cruelty and ruthlessness, so Joseph was afraid to go there. After further direction in a dream, he went instead to Galilee.

¹² sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

¹³ sn Nazareth was a very small village in the region of Galilee (Galilee lay north of Samaria and Judea). The town was located about 15 mi (25 km) west of the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee. According to Luke 1:26, Mary was living in Nazareth when the birth of Jesus was announced to her.

¹⁴ tn There is no expressed subject of the third person singular verb here; the pronoun “he” is implied. Instead of this pronoun the referent “Jesus” has been supplied in the text to clarify to whom this statement refers.

¹⁵ tn The Greek could be indirect discourse (as in the text), or direct discourse (“he will be called a Nazarene”). Judging by the difficulty of finding OT quotations (as implied in the plural “prophets”) to match the wording here, it appears that the author was using a current expression of scorn that conceptually (but not verbally) found its roots in the OT.