Wise men come to look for Jesus
1Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in the province of Judea. He was born at the time when Herod was king. After Jesus was born, there were some wise men who came to Jerusalem. They were from a land in the east. 2They asked the people: ‘Where is the Child who was born to be king_of_the_Jews? We saw his star and we want to kneel before Him and worship Him.’
3When they told King Herod about this, he and all the people in Jerusalem were upset and very worried. 4King Herod called the chief_priests and the teachers_of_the_Laws. They had a meeting and King Herod asked them: ‘Where will the Christ be born?’
5They said to him: ‘The Christ will be born in the town of Bethlehem in the province of Judea. That is what the prophet said. He wrote: 6“God said:
Bethlehem, in the province of Judea,
you are very important.
A leader will come from you.
He will be born in you.
He will look after my people,
the Israelites,
like a shepherd looks after his sheep.” ’
7Then King Herod called the wise men. He said they must come to him, but they must not tell other people. He asked them when they had first seen the star. 8Then King Herod said to the wise men: ‘Go to Bethlehem and find the Child. And when you find Him, you must come back and tell me. I also want to go and worship Him.’
9After the king said this to the wise men, they went away. The star that they saw in the east went in front of them and they followed the star until it came to the place where the Child was and then the star stopped. 10When the wise men saw the star there, they were very happy. 11They went into the house and they saw the Child with his mother Mary. Then they bowed and knelt before Him and they worshipped Him. The wise men opened their bags and they gave their gifts to the Child: They were gold, incense and myrrh. 12God came to the wise men in a dream and He warned them and said they must not go back to King Herod. That is why they went home on another road.
Joseph and Mary flee with Jesus to the land of Egypt
13After the wise men went away, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and he said: ‘Get up, take the Child and his mother and flee to Egypt. You must stay there until I tell you to come back home, because King Herod wants to kill the Child.’
14That night Joseph went away to Egypt. He took the Child and his mother with him. 15They stayed in Egypt until King Herod died. This happened as the prophet had said. He wrote:
‘The Lord said,
I have called my son out of Egypt.’
16King Herod found out that the wise men from the east had deceived him. He told them to come back to him, but they did not. The king was very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in the town of Bethlehem who were 2 years old and younger than 2 years. They also killed the boys who lived near Bethlehem. He told the soldiers to kill all the boys that were 2 years old and younger, because that was the time that the wise men told him that they had seen the star. 17All of this happened as the prophet Jeremiah had said. He wrote:
18‘They hear the people cry,
and how sad they are
in the town of Ramah.
Rachel is crying for her children.
People try to comfort her,
but she does not want them to comfort her
because her children are dead.’
Joseph, Mary and Jesus come back from Egypt
19After King Herod died, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph. He appeared to him in a dream in the land of Egypt. The angel said to Joseph: 20‘Get up, take the Child and his mother and go back to the land_of_Israel, because the people who wanted to kill the Child have died.’
21Joseph took the Child and his mother and he went back to Israel. 22Archelaus was the new king of the province of Judea, after his father Herod. Joseph was afraid to go to Judea and the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and said to him: ‘Do not go to Judea. Go to the province of Galilee.’
23Then Joseph went to stay in the town of Nazareth. This happened because the prophet had said: ‘The people will say Jesus is the man from Nazareth.’
