Matthew 1–2

The Family History of Jesus

1This is the family history of Jesus Christ. He came from the family of David, and David came from the family of Abraham.

²Abraham was the father ⁿ of Isaac.

Isaac was the father of Jacob.

Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.

³Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah.

(Their mother was Tamar.)

Perez was the father of Hezron.

Hezron was the father of Ram.

⁴Ram was the father of Amminadab.

Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.

Nahshon was the father of Salmon.

⁵Salmon was the father of Boaz.

(Boaz’s mother was Rahab.)

Boaz was the father of Obed.

(Obed’s mother was Ruth.)

Obed was the father of Jesse.

⁶Jesse was the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon.

(Solomon’s mother had been Uriah’s wife.)

⁷Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.

Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.

Abijah was the father of Asa. ⁿ

⁸Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram.

Jehoram was the ancestor of Uzziah.

⁹Uzziah was the father of Jotham.

Jotham was the father of Ahaz.

Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.

¹⁰Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.

Manasseh was the father of Amon.

Amon was the father of Josiah.

¹¹Josiah was the grandfather of Jehoiachin ⁿ and his brothers.

(This was at the time that the people were taken to Babylon.)

¹²After they were taken to Babylon:

Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel.

Shealtiel was the grandfather of Zerubbabel.

¹³Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.

Abiud was the father of Eliakim.

Eliakim was the father of Azor.

¹⁴Azor was the father of Zadok.

Zadok was the father of Akim.

Akim was the father of Eliud.

¹⁵Eliud was the father of Eleazar.

Eleazar was the father of Matthan.

Matthan was the father of Jacob.

¹⁶Jacob was the father of Joseph.

Joseph was the husband of Mary,

and Mary was the mother of Jesus.

Jesus is called the Christ.

¹⁷So there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David. And there were fourteen generations from David until the people were taken to Babylon. And there were fourteen generations from the time when the people were taken to Babylon until Christ was born.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was engaged ⁿ to marry Joseph, but before they married, she learned she was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Mary’s husband, Joseph, was a good man, he did not want to disgrace her in public, so he planned to divorce her secretly.

²⁰While Joseph thought about these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the baby in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus, ⁿ because he will save his people from their sins.”

²²All this happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³“The virgin will be pregnant. She will have a son, and they will name him Immanuel,” ⁿ which means “God is with us.”

²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do. Joseph took Mary as his wife, ²⁵but he did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to the son. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Wise Men Come to Visit Jesus

2Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea during the time when Herod was king. When Jesus was born, some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. ²They asked, “Where is the baby who was born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

³When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, as were all the people in Jerusalem. ⁴Herod called a meeting of all the leading priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Christ would be born. ⁵They answered, “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea. The prophet wrote about this in the Scriptures:

⁶‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are not just an insignificant village in Judah.

A ruler will come from you

who will be like a shepherd for my people Israel.’ ”

⁷Then Herod had a secret meeting with the wise men and learned from them the exact time they first saw the star. ⁸He sent the wise men to Bethlehem, saying, “Look carefully for the child. When you find him, come tell me so I can worship him too.”

⁹After the wise men heard the king, they left. The star that they had seen in the east went before them until it stopped above the place where the child was. ¹⁰When the wise men saw the star, they were filled with joy. ¹¹They came to the house where the child was and saw him with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their gifts and gave him treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²But God warned the wise men in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they returned to their own country by a different way.

Jesus’ Parents Take Him to Egypt

¹³After they left, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, because Herod is starting to look for the child so he can kill him. Stay in Egypt until I tell you to return.”

¹⁴So Joseph got up and left for Egypt during the night with the child and his mother. ¹⁵And Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died. This happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet: “I called my son out of Egypt.” ⁿ

Herod Kills the Baby Boys

¹⁶When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he was furious. So he gave an order to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem and in the surrounding area who were two years old or younger. This was in keeping with the time he learned from the wise men. ¹⁷So what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah came true:

¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah

of painful crying and deep sadness:

Rachel crying for her children.

She refused to be comforted,

because her children are dead.”

Joseph and Mary Return

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream while he was in Egypt. ²⁰The angel said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, because the people who were trying to kill the child are now dead.”

²¹So Joseph took the child and his mother and went to Israel. ²²But he heard that Archelaus was now king in Judea since his father Herod had died. So Joseph was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee, ²³to a town called Nazareth, and lived there. And so what God had said through the prophets came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.” ⁿ