The King is visited by the wise men
2
📚✭Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod✭ the king, suddenly wise men✭ from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 📚✭saying, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him”. 3 📚✭When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 📚✭And when he had gathered together all the chief priests and scribes✭ of the people, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 📚✭And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea. For thus it has been written by the prophet:6 📚And you, Bethlehem, in the land
of Judah,
are not the least among the princes
of Judah,
for out of you a Ruler will come
who will shepherd my people Israel”.
7 📚Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, found out from them the exact time the star appeared. 8 📚✭And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search carefully for the young child. And when you have found him, bring me word again, so that I too may come and worship him”.
9 📚When they had heard the king, they went away, and now the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them until it came and stood✭ over the place where the young child was. 10 📚When they saw the star, they rejoiced, with exceedingly great joy. 11 📚✭And when they came into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and prostrated themselves and worshipped✭ him. And opening their treasures, they presented gifts to him: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 12 📚And being warned by God in a dream✭ that they should not return to Herod, they went away to their own country by another way.
The King in Egypt and Nazareth
13 📚And when they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up, take the young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word✭. For Herod will look for the young child to destroy him✭”.
14 📚When he got up, he took the young child and his mother at night and left for Egypt. 15 📚✭And he was there until the death of Herod, so that there might be a fulfilment of what was spoken about the Lord by the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I have called my son”.
16 📚✭Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent men out, and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all of its environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had found out accurately from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
18 📚✭“In Ramah a voice was heard,
lamentation, weeping,
and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children,
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more”.
19 📚But when Herod was dead, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 📚saying, “Get up and take the young child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child's life are dead”.
21 📚And he got up and took the young child and his mother, and came to the land of Israel. 22 📚But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And having been warned by God in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee. 23 📚✭And he came and lived in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He will be called a Nazarene.