Matthew 2:3-16

2:3 When King Herod ¹  heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. 2:4 After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, ²  he asked them where the Christ ³  was to be born. 2:5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ⁴ 

2:7 Then Herod ⁵  privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared. 2:8 He ⁶  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.” 2:9 After listening to the king they left, and once again ⁷  the star they saw when it rose ⁸  led them until it stopped above the place where the child was. 2:10 When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. ⁹  2:11 As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down ¹⁰  and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, ¹¹  and myrrh. ¹²  2:12 After being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, ¹³  they went back by another route to their own country.

The Escape to Egypt

2:13 After they had gone, an ¹⁴  angel of the Lord ¹⁵  appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod ¹⁶  is going to look for the child to kill him.” 2:14 Then he got up, took the child and his mother during ¹⁷  the night, and went to Egypt. 2:15 He stayed there until Herod ¹⁸  died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” ¹⁹ 

2:16 When Herod ²⁰  saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men ²¹  to kill all the children in Bethlehem ²²  and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.

[2:3]  ¹ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:4]  ² tn Or “and scribes of the people.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[2:4]  ³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:6]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.

[2:7]  ⁵ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:8]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[2:9]  ⁷ tn Grk “and behold the star.”

[2:9]  ⁸ tn See the note on the word “rose” in 2:2.

[2:10]  ⁹ tn Grk “they rejoiced with very great joy.”

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “they fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

[2:11]  ¹¹ sn Frankincense refers to the aromatic resin of certain trees, used as a sweet-smelling incense (L&N 6.212).

[2:11]  ¹² sn Myrrh consisted of the aromatic resin of certain shrubs (L&N 6.208). It was used in preparing a corpse for burial.

[2:12]  ¹³ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:13]  ¹⁴ 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).

[2:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20.

[2:13]  ¹⁶ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Herod the Great was particularly ruthless regarding the succession to his throne.

[2:14]  ¹⁷ tn The feminine singular genitive noun νυκτός (nuktos, “night”) indicates the time during which the action of the main verb takes place (ExSyn 124).

[2:15]  ¹⁸ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:15]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Hos 11:1.

[2:16]  ²⁰ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.

[2:16]  ²¹ tn Or “soldiers.”

[2:16]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.