Jesus is born

¹⁸ This is how Jesus Christ was born. His mother's name was Mary. She had promised to marry a man called Joseph. Then she discovered that she was pregnant. This happened before they started to live together. It was the Holy Spirit that caused this to happen to her. ¹⁹ Joseph was a good man. He wanted to do what was right. He did not want her to become ashamed in front of people. So he decided to stop their marriage secretly.^{[a] 20} He thought about what he should do. Then an angel came from the Lord God to see him. The angel came to Joseph while he was dreaming. The angel said, ‘Joseph, you who are from the family of King David, take Mary home as your wife. Do not be afraid to do that. The baby that is growing inside her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ Mary's baby will be a boy. He will save his people from their sins.^[b] Because of that, you must give him the name “Jesus”.’

²² The Lord God had given a message about this to one of his prophets long ago. Now that message would become true. ²³ The prophet had said, ‘A young woman who has never had sex will have a baby boy. People will call her son Immanuel.’ This name means ‘God is with us’.

²⁴ Then Joseph woke up from his sleep. He did what God's angel had said to him. He married Mary and he took her to his home. ²⁵ Joseph did not have sex with Mary until after the baby boy was born. He said that the boy's name should be Jesus.

Mary, Joseph and Jesus go to Egypt

¹³ After the men had gone away, Joseph had a dream. In the dream, he saw one of the Lord God's angels. The angel said to him, ‘Herod will look for the child, so that his soldiers can kill him. You must get up and take the child and his mother with you. Go immediately to Egypt. I will tell you when you can return again. You must remain there until then.’

¹⁴ So Joseph got up and he took the child and his mother with him. They started on the journey to Egypt that night. ¹⁵ They all remained in Egypt until Herod died. This happened so that the words of the prophet would become true. The Lord God had said by his prophet, ‘I have called my son to come out of Egypt.’^[a]

Herod's soldiers kill the baby boys in Bethlehem

¹⁶ When the wise men did not return to Herod, he was very angry. He knew that they had deceived him. So he sent his men to Bethlehem. He said to them, ‘Kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem. Kill the boys who live near there too. Kill all the boys who are two years old or younger than that.’ The wise men had told Herod how long ago they had first seen the special star. So he decided to kill the baby boys of that age. ¹⁷ In this way, these words that God's prophet Jeremiah spoke long ago became true:^[b]

Joseph, Mary and Jesus return to Israel

¹⁹ After Herod died, Joseph had a dream in Egypt. In the dream he saw one of the Lord God's angels. ²⁰ The angel said to Joseph, ‘Get up. The people who wanted to kill the child are dead. Take the child and his mother. You can now return with them to Israel.’

²¹ So Joseph got up. He took the child and his mother and they travelled to Israel. ²² But then Joseph heard that Herod's son, Archelaus, was now king of Judea instead of his father. So Joseph was afraid to go to Judea. In another dream God showed Joseph that he should go to Galilee instead. ²³ So Joseph went there and he lived in a town called Nazareth. Long ago God's prophets had said about God's Messiah, ‘He will be called a person from Nazareth.’ Now this had become true.