Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Visitors from the East
1 Jesus was born in the town of
Bethlehem in Judea, during the
time when Herod was king. Soon afterward,
some men who studied the
stars came from the East to Jerusalem
2 and asked, “Where is the baby
born to be the king of the Jews? We
saw his star when it came up in the
east, and we have come to worship
him.”
3 When King Herod heard about
this, he was very upset, and so was
everyone else in Jerusalem.
4 He
called together all the chief priests
and the teachers of the Law and
asked them, “Where will the Messiah
be born?”
5 “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea,”
they answered. “For this is
what the prophet wrote:
6
‘Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
you are by no means the least of the leading cities of Judah;
for from you will come a leader
who will guide my people Israel.’” note
7 So Herod called the visitors
from the East to a secret meeting
and found out from them the exact
time the star had appeared.
8 Then
he sent them to Bethlehem with
these instructions: “Go and make a
careful search for the child; and
when you find him, let me know, so
that I too may go and worship him.”
9
10 And so they left, and on their
way they saw the same star they had
seen in the East. When they saw it,
how happy they were, what joy was
theirs! It went ahead of them until it
stopped over the place where the
-- --
child was.
11 They went into the
house, and when they saw the child
with his mother Mary, they knelt
down and worshiped him. They
brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense,
and myrrh, and presented
them to him.
12 Then they returned to their
country by another road, since God
had warned them in a dream not to
go back to Herod.
The Escape to Egypt
13 After they had left, an angel of
the Lord appeared in a dream to
Joseph and said, “Herod will be
looking for the child in order to kill
him. So get up, take the child and his
mother and escape to Egypt, and
stay there until I tell you to leave.”
14 Joseph got up, took the child
and his mother, and left during the
night for Egypt,
15 where he stayed
until Herod died. This was done to
make come true what the Lord had
said through the prophet, “I called
my Son out of Egypt.” note
The Killing of the Children
16 When Herod realized that the
visitors from the East had tricked
him, he was furious. He gave orders
to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and
its neighborhood who were two
years old and younger—this was
done in accordance with what he
had learned from the visitors about
the time when the star had appeared.
17 In this way what the prophet
Jeremiah had said came true:
18
“A sound is heard in Ramah,
the sound of bitter weeping.
Rachel is crying for her children;
she refuses to be comforted,
for they are dead.” note
The Return from Egypt
19 After Herod died, an angel of the
Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph
in Egypt
20 and said, “Get up, take
the child and his mother, and go
back to the land of Israel, because
those who tried to kill the child are
dead.”
21 So Joseph got up, took the
child and his mother, and went back
to Israel.
22 But when Joseph heard that Archelaus
had succeeded his father
Herod as king of Judea, he was
afraid to go there. He was given
more instructions in a dream, so he
went to the province of Galilee
23 and
made his home in a town named
Nazareth. And so what the prophets
had said came true: “He will be
called a Nazarene.” note
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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