Matthew 2

Overview:

v.1-2

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Despite the biblical prohibition of divination, by this period many Jewish people accepted the idea that the stars could accurately predict the future (especially for Gentiles). Even though these Magi were pagans, God had chosen to reveal himself to them.

craigkeener

v.5

"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:

v.15

where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

v.16

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he learned from the Magi.

v.23

and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

He does not say "by the prophet," as in Matthew 1:22; Matthew 2:5, Matthew 2:15, but "by the prophets," meaning no one particularly, but the general character of the prophecies.

The character of the people of Nazareth was such that they were proverbially despised and contemned, John 1:46; John 7:52. To come from Nazareth, therefore, or to be a Nazarene, was the same as to be despised, or to be esteemed of low birth; to be a root out of dry ground, having no form or comeliness. This was what had been predicted by all the prophets. When Matthew says, therefore, that the prophecies were "fulfilled," his meaning is, that the predictions of the prophets that he would be of a low and despised condition, and would be rejected, were fully accomplished in his being an inhabitant of Nazareth, and despised as such.

barnes