2
Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in the region of Judea. During that time, King Herod the Great ruled there. Some time after Jesus was born, some men from the east who studied the stars came to the city of Jerusalem. 2 They were asking people, “Where is the one whom God appointed to be the king over the Jews from the time of his birth? We have seen a star in the east which was the sign that he has been born, so we have come to worship him.”3 When King Herod the Great heard about what these men were asking, he became very troubled. Many of the people in Jerusalem also became troubled. 4 Then King Herod called together all the chief priests and teachers of the Jewish laws. He asked them where the prophets had predicted that the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, “He will be born in the town of Bethlehem, here in the region of Judea. We know this because the prophet Micah wrote long ago, 6 ‘You who live in Bethlehem in the land of Judah, your town is certainly very important. This is because a man from your town will become a leader. He will guide my people who live in Israel like a shepherd .’”
7 Then King Herod secretly brought those men who studied the stars to himself. He asked them exactly when the star first appeared. 8 Then he said to them, “Go out from here to Bethlehem and search everywhere to find where the child is. When you have found him, come back and tell me where he is so that I myself can go there and worship him too.”
9 After the men heard the king’s request, they went toward the town of Bethlehem. The star which appeared to them in the east appeared again, and led them to the place where the child was. Then, the star remained above that place. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced greatly. 11 After they entered the house where the star led them, they saw the child and his mother, Mary. They bowed down and worshiped him. Then they took out gold, frankincense, and myrrh gifts and give them to him. 12 After they left the place where the child was, God warned them in a dream not to return to King Herod. So they left to go back to their country, traveling back on a different road than the one they came on.
13 After the men who studied the stars left Bethlehem, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. He said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee into the country of Egypt. Stay there until I tell you that you should return, because King Herod is about to send soldiers to look for the child so that they can kill him.” 14 So Joseph woke up that night after having the dream. He took the child and Mary the child's mother, and they fled into Egypt. 15 Joseph, Mary, and Jesus stayed there until King Herod died. Then they left Egypt and returned to Judah. In this way, what God had told the prophet Hosea to write proved true,
“I have brought my son out of Egypt.”
16 Before King Herod died, he realized that the men who study the stars had tricked him, and he became furious. Because he thought that Jesus was still near Bethlehem, Herod sent soldiers there to kill all the boy babies two years old and younger. Herod calculated how old the baby was, according to what the men who studied the stars told him about when the star first appeared. 17 When Herod did this, what the prophet Jeremiah had written long ago proved true, when he wrote about Bethlehem near the town of Ramah:
18 Women in Ramah were weeping and wailing loudly.
The descendants of Rachel were weeping because of what happened to their children.
People tried to comfort them, but they were not able to, because all their children were dead.
19 After Herod died, an angel that the Lord had sent appeared to Joseph in a dream while they were in Egypt. He said to Joseph, 20 “Get up and take the child and his mother and return to the country of Israel to live, because the people who were trying to kill the child have died.” 21 So Joseph took the child and his mother, and they returned to Israel.
22 But when Joseph heard that Archaelaus now ruled in the region of Judea instead of his father, King Herod the Great, he was afraid to go there. So God instructed Joseph in a dream to go to the district of Galilee instead. 23 They went to live in the town of Nazareth. The result was that what the prophets had said long ago proved true: “People will say that he is from Nazareth.”