Matthew2:8

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Translation

Having sent them to BETHLEHEM,

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he told them, “Having gone, search carefully for the child, and when you have found him, report back to me so that I also may go and worship Him.”

Paraphrase

After he told them to go to THE HOUSE OF BREAD, he said to them, “Once you have left here and arrived there, search carefully for the child, and when you have found him report back to me so that I also may go there and worship Him.”

Footnotes

1: “sent them to Bethlehem”

He answered the question the wise men  had been asking around the city by telling them that the prophecies indicated this one would be born in Bethlehem. He believed the prophecies enough to tell them the location, but he also believed sufficiently in his own power to think he could annihilate this threat to his throne. The Wise Men made their way initially toward Bethlehem based on the directions given them by Herod, however, they did not know exactly where to find this child. It was a small town, but it would be awkward for strangers, who were also foreigners, to go door-to-door asking about a specific baby. And how would they ask? What would they look for? How would they know which one was the right one?