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From the Commentary on the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
The Flight into Egypt (Mt 2:13-15).
13. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to
Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother -
Observe this form of expression, repeated in Mt 2:14 - another indirect hint
that Joseph was no more than the Child's guardian. Indeed, personally
considered, Joseph has no spiritual significance, and very little place at all,
in the Gospel history.
and flee into Egypt - which, being near, as Alford says, and a Roman province
independent of Herod, and much inhabited by Jews, was an easy and convenient
refuge. Ah! blessed Saviour, on what a checkered career hast Thou entered here
below! At Thy birth there was no room for Thee in the inn; and now all Judea is
too hot for Thee. How soon has the sword begun to pierce through the Virgin's
soul (Lu 2:35)! How early does she taste the reception which this mysterious
Child of hers is to meet with in the world! And whither is He sent? To "the
house of bondage?" Well, it once was that. But Egypt was a house of refuge
before it was a house of bondage, and now it has but returned to its first use.
and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child
to destroy him - Herod's murderous purpose was formed before the Magi had
reached Bethlehem.
14. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed
into Egypt - doubtless the same night.
15. And was there until the death of Herod - which took place not very long
after this of a horrible disease; the details of which will be found in Josephus
[Antiquities, 17.6.1,5,7,8].
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying -
(Ho 11:1).
Out of Egypt have I called my son - Our Evangelist here quotes directly from the
Hebrew, warily departing from the Septuagint, which renders the words, "From
Egypt have I recalled his children," meaning Israel's children. The prophet is
reminding his people how dear Israel was to God in the days of his youth; how
Moses was bidden to say to Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, My
first-born; and I say unto thee, Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if
thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born" (Ex
4:22, 23); how, when Pharaoh refused, God having slain all his first-born,
"called His own son out of Egypt," by a stroke of high-handed power and love.
Viewing the words in this light, even if our Evangelist had not applied them to
the recall from Egypt of God's own beloved, Only-begotten Son, the application
would have been irresistibly made by all who have learnt to pierce beneath the
surface to the deeper relations which Christ bears to His people, and both to
God; and who are accustomed to trace the analogy of God's treatment of each
respectively.
16. Then Herod, &c. - As Deborah sang of the mother of Sisera: "She looked out
at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in
coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots? Have they not sped?" so Herod
wonders that his messengers, with pious zeal, are not hastening with the news
that all is ready to receive him as a worshipper. What can be keeping them? Have
they missed their way? Has any disaster befallen them? At length his patience is
exhausted. He makes his inquiries and finds they are already far beyond his
reach on their way home.
when he saw that he was mocked - was trifled with.
of the wise men - No, Herod, thou art not mocked of the wise men, but of a
Higher than they. He that sitteth in the heavens doth laugh at thee; the Lord
hath thee in derision. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their
hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own
craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong (Ps 2:4; Job
5:12, 13). That blessed Babe shall die indeed, but not by thy hand. As He
afterwards told that son of thine - as cunning and as unscrupulous as thyself -
when the Pharisees warned Him to depart, for Herod would seek to kill Him - "Go
ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and
to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk
to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet
perish out of Jerusalem" (Lu 13:32, 33). Bitter satire!
was exceeding wroth - To be made a fool of is what none like, and proud kings
cannot stand. Herod burns with rage and is like a wild bull in a net. So he
sent forth - a band of hired murderers.
and slew all the children - male children.
that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof - environs.
from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently -
carefully.
inquired of the wise men - In this ferocious step Herod was like himself - as
crafty as cruel. He takes a large sweep, not to miss his mark. He thinks this
will surely embrace his victim. And so it had, if He had been there. But He is
gone. Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away than thou shalt have that Babe
into thy hands. Therefore, Herod, thou must be content to want Him: to fill up
the cup of thy bitter mortifications, already full enough - until thou die not
less of a broken heart than of a loathsome and excruciating disease. Why, ask
skeptics and skeptical critics, is not this massacre, if it really occurred,
recorded by Josephus, who is minute enough in detailing the cruelties of Herod?
To this the answer is not difficult. If we consider how small a town Bethlehem
was, it is not likely there would be many male children in it from two years old
and under; and when we think of the number of fouler atrocities which Josephus
has recorded of him, it is unreasonable to make anything of his silence on this.
17. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying - (Jer
31:15, from which the quotation differs but verbally).
18. In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because
they are not - These words, as they stand in Jeremiah, undoubtedly relate to the
Babylonish captivity. Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, was buried in
the neighborhood of Bethlehem (Ge 35:19), where her sepulchre is still shown.
She is figuratively represented as rising from the tomb and uttering a double
lament for the loss of her children - first, by a bitter captivity, and now by a
bloody death. And a foul deed it was. O ye mothers of Bethlehem! methinks I hear
you asking why your innocent babes should be the ram caught in the thicket,
while Isaac escapes. I cannot tell you, but one thing I know, that ye shall,
some of you, live to see a day when that Babe of Bethlehem shall be Himself the
Ram, caught in another sort of thicket, in order that your babes may escape a
worse doom than they now endure. And if these babes of yours be now in glory,
through the dear might of that blessed Babe, will they not deem it their honor
that the tyrant's rage was exhausted upon themselves instead of their infant
Lord?
19. But when Herod was dead - Miserable Herod! Thou thoughtest thyself safe from
a dreaded Rival; but it was He only that was safe from thee; and thou hast not
long enjoyed even this fancied security. See on Mt 2:15.
behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt - Our
translators, somewhat capriciously, render the same expression "the angel of the
Lord," Mt 1:20; 2:13; and "an angel of the Lord," as here. As the same angel
appears to have been employed on all these high occasions - and most likely he
to whom in Luke is given the name of "Gabriel," Lu 1:19, 26 - perhaps it should
in every instance except the first, be rendered "the angel."
20. Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land
of Israel - not to the land of Judea, for he was afterward expressly warned not
to settle there, nor to Galilee, for he only went thither when he found it
unsafe to settle in Judea but to "the land of Israel," in its most general
sense; meaning the Holy Land at large - the particular province being not as yet
indicated. So Joseph and the Virgin had, like Abraham, to "go out, not knowing
whither they went," till they should receive further direction.
for they are dead which sought the young child's life - a common expression in
most languages where only one is meant, who here is Herod. But the words are
taken from the strikingly analogous case in Ex 4:19, which probably suggested
the plural here; and where the command is given to Moses to return to Egypt for
the same reason that the greater than Moses was now ordered to be brought back
from it - the death of him who sought his life. Herod died in the seventieth
year of his age, and thirty-seventh of his reign.
21. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the
land of Israel - intending, as is plain from what follows, to return to
Bethlehem of Judea, there, no doubt, to rear the Infant King, as at His own
royal city, until the time should come when they would expect Him to occupy
Jerusalem, "the city of the Great King."
22. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his
father Herod - Archelaus succeeded to Judea, Samaria, and Idumea; but Augustus
refused him the title of king till it should be seen how he conducted himself;
giving him only the title of ethnarch [Josephus, Antiquities, 17.11,4]. Above
this, however, he never rose. The people, indeed, recognized him as his father's
successor; and so it is here said that he "reigned in the room of his father
Herod." But, after ten years' defiance of the Jewish law and cruel tyranny, the
people lodged heavy complaints against him, and the emperor banished him to
Vienne in Gaul, reducing Judea again to a Roman province. Then the "scepter"
clean "departed from Judah."
he was afraid to go thither - and no wonder, for the reason just mentioned.
notwithstanding - or more simply, "but."
being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside - withdrew.
into the parts of Galilee - or the Galilean parts. The whole country west of the
Jordan was at this time, as is well known, divided into three provinces -
Galilee being the northern, Judea the southern, and Samaria the central
province. The province of Galilee was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas,
the brother of Archelaus, his father having left him that and Perea, on the east
side of the Jordan, as his share of the kingdom, with the title of tetrarch,
which Augustus confirmed. Though crafty and licentious, according to Josephus -
precisely what the Gospel history shows him to be (see on Mr 6:14-30; Lu
13:31-35) - he was of a less cruel disposition than Archelaus; and Nazareth
being a good way off from the seat of government, and considerably secluded, it
was safer to settle there.
23. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth - a small town in Lower
Galilee, lying in the territory of the tribe of Zebulun, and about equally
distant from the Mediterranean Sea on the west and the Sea of Galilee on the
east. Note - If, from Lu 2:39, one would conclude that the parents of Jesus
brought Him straight back to Nazareth after His presentation in the temple - as
if there had been no visit of the Magi, no flight to Egypt, no stay there, and
no purpose on returning to settle again at Bethlehem - one might, from our
Evangelist's way of speaking here, equally conclude that the parents of our Lord
had never been at Nazareth until now. Did we know exactly the sources from which
the matter of each of the Gospels was drawn up, or the mode in which these were
used, this apparent discrepancy would probably disappear at once. In neither
case is there any inaccuracy. At the same time it is difficult, with these facts
before us, to conceive that either of these two Evangelists wrote his Gospel
with that of the other before him - though many think this a precarious
inference.
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