2
“Where Is the One Who Was Born to Be King of the Jews?”
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea during the time+ of King Herod, there+ came to Jerusalem, from the east, some men who studied the stars.+
2 “Where is the one who was born to be+ king of the Jews?” they asked. “We observed his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this, he was alarmed, and all the people+ of Jerusalem along with him.
4 So after he gathered all the chief priests and Torah-experts+ in leadership over+ the people, he kept asking+ them about where the Messiah was to be born.
5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said to him. “For this is what+ has been written through the prophet:
6 “ ‘And ˢyou, Bethlehem, region of Judah,+
are among the leading cities+ of Judah by no means least!+
For out of you will come a ruler,
who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”+
7 Herod, then, having summoned the visitors from the east+ secretly,+ learned from them the exact time the star had appeared.+
8 And as he sent them to Bethlehem, he said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. When ᵖyou find him, report back to me, so that I myself+ may go and worship him, too.”
9 After listening to the king, the men+ went on their way. Then something remarkable happened:+ The star, whose rising they had observed,+ was moving ahead of them, until it came and stopped above the place where the child was!
10 When the men+ saw the star, they were overcome with joy.+
11 On coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they threw themselves to the ground and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts; that is, with gold and frankincense and myrrh.
12 And because+ they had been divinely warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, it was+ by an alternative route that they left for their own country.
“It Was Egypt out of Which I Called My Son”
13 Now after the men+ had left, suddenly there+ appeared to Joseph in a dream an angel+ of the Lord. “Get up,” the angel+ said, “take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and stay there until I tell ˢyou, because Herod is about to order+ a search for the child, to have+ him killed.”
14 So Joseph+ got up and took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,
15 and he stayed there until Herod died.+ And so was fulfilled, according to plan,+ what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “It was+ Egypt out of which I called my son.”+
“It’s Rachel, Weeping for Her Children”
16 Herod, then, on realizing that he had been outwitted by the visitors from the east, was absolutely furious. He sent some soldiers+ and ordered+ them to execute all the young boys in Bethlehem and throughout the surrounding areas who were two years old and under, according to the exact time he had learned from the visitors.
17 Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
18 “There+ was heard a sound in the city+ of Ramah,
sobbing and intense wailing;
it’s+ Rachel, weeping for her children!
And she refused to be consoled, because they are dead.+”+
“He Would Be Called This: ‘Netzer,’ The Branch”
19 Now after Herod died, suddenly there+ appeared to Joseph in a dream, while he was in Egypt,+ an angel+ of the Lord.
20 “Get up,” the angel+ said, “take the child and his mother and go back+ to the land of Israel. For those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
21 So Joseph+ got up and took the child and his mother and entered the land of Israel.
22 When he heard, though, that Archelaus was the one+ now ruling+ over+ Judea in succession+ to his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.+ So, having been divinely warned in a dream, Joseph+ left for the district of Galilee.
23 He went and settled in a town called Natzar-eth. And so was fulfilled, right in line with God’s plan,+ what had been spoken through the prophets, namely, that he would be called this:+ “Netzer,” the Branch.+