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13 After they had left, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod intends to search for the child to kill him.” 14 He got up, took the child and his mother, and left by night for Egypt. 15 He stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet who said, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
16 When Herod saw that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious and sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area two years old or younger, according to the time he had ascertained from the magi. 17 This fulfilled what had been spoken through the Prophet Jeremiah when he said, 18 ‘A voice was heard in Rama, wailing and mourning: Rachel weeping over her children. She will not be consoled, for they are no more.”
Comments
The prophet quoted in 2.15 is Hosea 11.1. In its original context, it refers to God calling “his son” (the people of Israel) out of Egypt through the Exodus. Here Mt applies it to Jesus, who as the Messiah will recapitulate the history of his people. The quote from in 2.18 is Jeremiah 31.15. It originally evoked the deceased matriarch Rachel, buried at Bethlehem, weeping over her descendants carried off into exile. That the weeping could be heard in Rama, miles from Bethlehem, indicated its intensity. Here Mt reinterprets the image, applying it to the grief caused by the slaughter of innocent children in Bethlehem.
As with the visit of the magi, there is no evidence outside Mt of Herod ordering the slaughter of children in Bethlehem in attempt to kill an infant messiah. Once again, though, something like this would be consistent with his character: the Jewish historian Josephus reports that as he lay dying of age and sickness, Herod ordered that the leading citizens of Judea should be executed immediately upon his death, so that the whole land would have reason to mourn his passing - an order which his successor fortunately ignored.