Bible Strands
Matthew 2:13
When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — An angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream immediately after the Magi depart, commanding him to take the Child and His mother to Egypt to escape Herod’s impending search.
The words — ἄγγελος (angelos) = an angel, and φαίνεται (phainetai) = appears, describing a supernatural manifestation that interrupts Joseph’s ordinary life.
The thread — The dream appearance parallels Matthew 1:20 and Matthew 2:12, where divine guidance through dreams directs key movements in the narrative.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate obedience to a divine warning, placing the reader under the reality of sudden, life-threatening opposition and the necessity of fleeing to safety.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
Cross-references
- Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”
- Matthew 1:20 But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
- Matthew 2:12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their country by another route.
- Acts 5:19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out, saying,
- Acts 10:7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among his attendants.
- Acts 12:11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
- Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision in the night, when deep sleep falls upon men as they slumber on their beds,
- Matthew 2:16 When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.
- Matthew 2:19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.
- Joshua 4:18 When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up out of the Jordan and their feet touched the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their course and overflowed all the banks as before.