Rachel’s Sadness Turns to Joy

¹⁵ This is what the Lord says:

¹⁶ Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. ¹⁷ Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

40 The Lord gave a message to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had released him at Ramah. He had found Jeremiah bound in chains among all the other captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being sent to exile in Babylon.

¹³ “Sir,” they said, “there are actually twelve of us. We, your servants, are all brothers, sons of a man living in the land of Canaan. Our youngest brother is back there with our father right now, and one of our brothers is no longer with us.”

³⁵ His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave^[a] mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).