The Escape to Egypt

¹³ Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt,¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’

The Massacre of the Infants

¹⁶ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:¹⁸ ‘A voice was heard in Ramah,   wailing and loud lamentation,Rachel weeping for her children;   she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’

The Return from Egypt

¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,²⁰‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.’²¹Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.²²But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.²³There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’

Psalm 137

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

¹ By the rivers of Babylon—   there we sat down and there we wept   when we remembered Zion.² On the willows there   we hung up our harps.³ For there our captors   asked us for songs,and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,   ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ ⁴ How could we sing the ^Lord’s song   in a foreign land?⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,   let my right hand wither!⁶ Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,   if I do not remember you,if I do not set Jerusalem   above my highest joy.