When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” 14 Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. 15 He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: “18 A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”
The angel who guided the Magi to worship the Christ child warned them not to return to Herod. The same angel warned Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt with his family to protect Jesus from Herod's intent to kill Him. The journey to Egypt likely took five or six days. In the Old Testament, Egypt symbolized both a place of refuge from oppression (1 Kings 11:40; 2 Kings 25:26) and a place of bondage (Ex. 1:8-14). After Herod’s death, God instructed Joseph to return to Israel, and the family eventually settled in Nazareth (Mt. 2:19-23).
Matthew connects this event to the prophecy in Hosea 11:1: “Out of Egypt I called my son,” interpreting Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel’s destiny as God’s Son. In the Old Testament, Israel was referred to as God’s adopted son (Ex. 4:22; Rom. 9:4), called out of Egypt during the Exodus. Jesus, however, is the eternal Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, one in being with the Father. The flight to Egypt and Jesus’ return represent a new Exodus, with Christ as the greater Moses who leads humanity out of the ultimate bondage of sin and death.
There is no historical record confirming or refuting that Herod ordered the massacre of “all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” Bethlehem was a small village with an estimated population of about 1,000, so the number of children killed, if the event occurred, is estimated to have been no more than 20. This might explain why historians like Josephus, who chronicled Herod’s reign but focused on larger-scale events, did not mention it. By recounting the slaughter of innocent children, Matthew draws a typological parallel between Pharaoh, who ordered the death of Israelite male infants at birth (Exodus 1:15-16), and Herod. This portrays Herod as a tyrannical figure opposing God’s plan, while emphasizing Jesus as the new Moses, destined to lead humanity to salvation.
The evangelist cites Jeremiah 31:15 to show that the massacre of the innocents fulfills Old Testament prophecy and was foreseen by God. In this passage, Rachel, the wife of Jacob and the mother of Benjamin and Joseph, symbolically mourns for her children. Her lamentation reflects Israel’s sorrow during the Babylonian exile, as captives were gathered in Ramah before being deported. This imagery is reinterpreted by Matthew to parallel the grief experienced in Bethlehem during Herod’s massacre.
Almighty God, you willed that your Word take
flesh in an ever-virgin womb, and you protected him, not out of fear for his
life, but to preserve the gift of eternal life for all mankind. Look with favor on our prayers, and in your
mercy grant us a share in the divinity of Christ so that we may be worthy of
eternal life. This we pray through
Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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