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Scott's Reference Library
Matthew 2:13 through Matthew 2:18 (NIV)
13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.
“Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay
there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for
Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the
Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious,
and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were
two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the
Magi. 17Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 13-15
Egypt had been a house of bondage to Israel, and particularly cruel to the
infants of Israel; yet it is to be a place of refuge to the holy Child Jesus.
God, when he pleases, can make the worst of places serve the best of purposes.
This was a trial of the faith of Joseph and Mary. But their faith, being tried,
was found firm. If we and our infants are at any time in trouble, let us
remember the straits in which Christ was when an infant.
VERSES 16-18
Herod killed all the male children, not only in Bethlehem, but in all the
villages of that city. Unbridled wrath, armed with an unlawful power, often
carries men to absurd cruelties. It was no unrighteous thing with God to permit
this; every life is forfeited to his justice as soon as it begins. The diseases
and deaths of little children are proofs of original sin. But the murder of
these infants was their martyrdom. How early did persecution against Christ and
his kingdom begin! Herod now thought that he had baffled the Old Testament
prophecies, and the efforts of the wise men in finding Christ; but whatever
crafty, cruel devices are in men’s hearts, the counsel of the Lord shall stand.