³ When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.

²² Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews^[a] you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”^(A)

¹⁹ He dealt craftily with our people and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.^(A)

¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of cypress^[a] wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.^(A)

The Massacre of the Infants

¹⁶ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi,^[a] 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 magi.^[b]

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.”^(A)

³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.