Matthew 2:1-12
After some astrologers saw an unusual star, they traveled westwards to find the place where the infant Jesus was. King Herod helped direct them, but then an angel told them not to go back to King Herod.
1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem
town in Judea
province during the time [MTY] that King Herod
the Great ruled there. Some time after Jesus was born, some men who studied the stars and who lived in a
country east
of Judea came to Jerusalem
city.
2 They asked
people, “Where is the one who has been born
in order that he might be the king of
you Jews?
We believe that your new king has been born, because we have seen the star
that we believe indicated that he has been
born.
We saw it while we were in our country east
of here. So we have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard
what those men were asking, he became worried
that someone else might be proclaimed {people might proclaim someone else}
king of the Jews to replace him. Many
of the people of Jerusalem
city [MTY, HYP]
also became worried
because they were afraid of what King Herod might do.
4 Then Herod gathered together all the ruling priests and men who taught the people the
Jewish laws and 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 Bethlehem
town, here in Judea
province, because it was written by the prophet
Micah {the prophet
Micah wrote}
long ago what God said:
6 ‘You
who live in Bethlehem
town [APO], in Judea
province, your town is certainly very important [LIT], because a man from your
town will become a ruler. He will guide my people
who live in Israel.’”
7 Then
King Herod secretly summoned those men who studied the stars. He asked them exactly when the star
first appeared.
By what they told him, he was able to know the approximate age of the baby.
8 Then he
concealed what he really planned to do and said to them, “Go to Bethlehem and inquire thoroughly
where the infant is. When you have found him,
come back and report to me so that I, myself, can gothere and worship him, too.”
9 After the men heard what the king
told them, they went
toward Bethlehem town. To their surprise, the star that they had seen while they were in the eastern
country went ahead of them
again until it stood abovethe house where the child was.
10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced greatly
and followed it.
11 They
found the house and entered it and saw the child and his mother, Mary. They bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasure
boxes [MTY] and they gave gold,
costly frankincense, and myrrh to him.
12
Because God
knew that King Herod planned to kill Jesus, in a dream the men who studied the stars were warned {he warned the men who studied the stars} that they should not return to
King Herod. So they returned to their country,
but instead of traveling back on the same road, they went on a different road.
Matthew 2:13-21
Following an angel's instructions, Joseph took his family to country of Egypt to escape from Herod.
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(sg) that you should leave, becauseKing Herod is about
to send soldiers to look for the child so that they can kill him.”
14 So Joseph got up, he took the child and his mother
that night, and they fled into Egypt.
15 They stayed there until
King Herod died,
and then they left Egypt. By doing that, it was {they} fulfilled what the prophet
Hosea wrote, which had been said by the Lord {which the Lord had said},
I have told my son to come out of Egypt.
16
While King Herod
was still living, because he realized that he had been tricked by the men who studied the stars {the men who studied the stars had tricked him}, he became furious. Then,
assuming that Jesus was still in Bethlehem or the surrounding regions, 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
Because Bethlehem and Ramah towns were in the area where the descendants of Jacob's wife Rachel lived, when soldiers killed the infant boys, they fulfilled what Jeremiah the prophet wrote,
18
Women in Ramah were weeping and wailing loudly.
Women who were the descendants of Rachel,
the ancestor of the women there [SYN], were grieving for
what happened to their children.
Even though people tried to comfort them, they would not be comforted {stop mourning} because their children were dead [EUP].
19 After Herod died
and while Joseph and his family were still in Egypt, an angel that the Lord
had sent appeared to Joseph in Egypt in a dream.
20 He said to Joseph, “Take the child and his mother and go back to
the country of Israel
to live, because the people who were looking for the child [EUP]
in order to kill him have died.”
21 So Joseph took the child and his mother, and they went back to Israel.
Matthew 2:22-23
Following an angel's warning, Joseph and his family returned to Nazareth, and thus a prophecy about the Messiah was fulfilled.
22 When Joseph heard that Archaelaus now ruled in Judea
district instead of his father,
King Herod
the Great, he was afraid to go there. Because he was warned {God warned Joseph} in a dream
that it was still dangerous for them to live in Judea, he
and Mary and Jesus went into Galilee
District
23 to the town called Nazareth
to live there. The result was that what had been said by the ancient prophets {what the ancient prophets had said}
about the Messiah, that he would be called {people would call him} a Nazareth-man, was fulfilled {came true}.