⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

²⁷ Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him.^{(A) 28} Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed.^(B)

⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.^(A)

²⁸ saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,^[a] yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.”^(A)

²³ this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.^(A)

⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.^{(A) 48} If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place^[a] and our nation.” ⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all!^{(B) 50} You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”^(C)

¹² When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.^(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]

³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, ⁴ and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah^[a] was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:^(A)

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the magi^[c] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” ⁹ When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east,^[d] until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw that the star had stopped,^[e] they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹ On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.^{(C) 12} And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.^(D)

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.”^(E)