International Children’s Bible

Matthew 2:13-23 International Children’s Bible (ICB)

13. After they left, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. The angel said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Herod will start looking for the child to kill him. Stay in Egypt until I tell you to return.”

14. So Joseph got up and left for Egypt during the night with the child and his mother.

15. Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died. This was to make clear the full meaning of what the Lord had said through the prophet. The Lord said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”

16. When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he was very angry. So he gave an order to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem and in all the area around Bethlehem who were two years old or younger. This was in keeping with the time he learned from the wise men.

17. So what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah came true:

18. “A sound was heard in Ramah.It was painful crying and much sadness.Rachel cries for her children,and she cannot be comforted,because her children are dead.” Jeremiah 31:15

19. After Herod died, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. This happened while Joseph was in Egypt.

20. The angel said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and go to Israel. The people who were trying to kill the child are now dead.”

21. So Joseph took the child and his mother and went to Israel.

22. But he heard that Archelaus was now king in Judea. Archelaus became king when his father Herod died. So Joseph was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee.

23. He went to a town called Nazareth and lived there. And so what God had said through the prophets came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.”