1. About that time Emperor Augustus gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in record books.
2. These first records were made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
3. Everyone had to go to their own home town to be listed.
4. So Joseph had to leave Nazareth in Galilee and go to Bethlehem in Judea. Long ago Bethlehem had been King David's home town, and Joseph went there because he was from David's family.
5. Mary was engaged to Joseph and travelled with him to Bethlehem. She was soon going to have a baby,
6. and while they were there,
7. she gave birth to her firstborn son. She dressed him in baby clothes and laid him on a bed of hay, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8. That night in the fields near Bethlehem some shepherds were guarding their sheep.