Chapter 2

¹Now after the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem in Judea, in the days of King Herod, astrologers from the east arrived at Jerusalem, ²and asked,

“Where is the newly born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star rise and we have come to do homage to him.”

³When King Herod heard of this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴So he called together all the high priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵They said,

“At Bethlehem in Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

⁶“ ‘And you, Bethlehem in Judah’s land,

You are by no means least important among the leading places of Judah,

For from you will come a leader

Who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ ”

⁷Then Herod secretly sent for the astrologers, and found out from them the exact time when the star appeared. ⁸And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said to them,

“Go and inquire particularly about the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, so that I may go and do homage to him too.”

⁹So they obeyed the king and went, and the star which they had seen rise led them on until it reached the place where the child was, and stopped above it. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were very glad, ¹¹and they went into the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they threw themselves down and did homage to him. They opened their treasure boxes and presented the child with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²Then, as they had been divinely warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another way.

¹³When they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said,

“Wake up! Take the child and his mother and make your escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave. For Herod is going to look for the child in order to make away with him.”

¹⁴Then he awoke and took the child and his mother by night and took refuge in Egypt, ¹⁵to fulfil what the Lord said by the prophet, “I called my son from Egypt.”

¹⁶Then Herod saw that he had been tricked by the astrologers, and he was very angry, and he sent and made away with all the boys in Bethlehem and in all that neighborhood who were two years old or under, for that was the tune he had learned from the astrologers by his inquiries. ¹⁷Then the saying was fulfilled which was uttered by the prophet Jeremiah,

¹⁸“A cry was heard in Ramah!

Weeping and great lamenting!

Rachel weeping for her children,

And inconsolable because they were gone.”

¹⁹But when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said,

“Wake up! Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”

²¹Then he awoke, and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But hearing that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to return there; and being warned in a dream, he took refuge in the region of Galilee, ²³and he went and settled in a town called Nazareth, in fulfilment of the saying of the prophets,

“He shall be called a Nazarene.”