Slaughter of the Innocents

Why were boys “two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16) slaughtered?
The wise men may have told King Herod that the star had first appeared in the east two years prior, which he and/or they interpreted as the time of Jesus’ conception or birth.

How many innocent boys did Herod slaughter?
The population of Bethlehem is estimated to have been a few hundred, perhaps as high as a thousand, during this era. If the latter, 500 would have been male. Assuming an average life expectancy of 60 years and even age distribution, there would have been 16.7 boys 2 year and under. But both birth and mortality rates were high back then, so there were more boys than old men. If the number 16.7 is increased by 100%, Herod slaughtered as many as 33 innocent boys.

Who was “Rachel” (Matthew 2:18)?
Even though Jacob, whose descendants became the nation of Israel, had four wives, Rachel was the only one he loved and chose as his wife. Leah, the older sister of Rachel, had been forced upon him by her father, who was determined to marry off his oldest daughter first, while Zilpah and Bilhah, the maids of Leah and Rachel, respectively, had been pushed upon him by their mistresses, who were competing to produce sons either directly or through their maids. Rachel died while giving birth to Benjamin, her second son, and was buried near Bethlehem: “And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath - that is, Bethlehem” (Genesis 48:7). Even though Rachel bore only two of Jacob’s twelve sons, she was Jacob’s wife of choice and represents the mothers of the nation in Jeremiah 31:15, from which Matthew 2:18 quotes as above.

Where is “Ramah” (Matthew 2:18)?
Located about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of Jerusalem and about 14 kilometers (9 miles) from Bethlehem of Judea, Ramah, which is also mentioned in Judges 19:13, was a small town in the land given to the tribe of Benjamin, which descended from Rachel’s second son with Jacob. When Israel split into northern and southern kingdoms after King Solomon's reign in the 10th century BC, the tribes of Benjamin and Judah became the southern kingdom, called Judah, so Ramah was also a town in the kingdom of Judah.

What did “Jeremiah the prophet” (Matthew 2:18) record in Jeremiah 31:15?
The anguish of the mothers in the kingdom of Judah after the Babylonians conquered it in the 6th century BC and had killed or carried off their children into exile in Babylon, as well as the anguish of the mothers in Bethlehem when Herod slaughtered their sons six centuries later. God’s word often has more than one application (see Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53).

How did Joseph, Mary and Jesus manage in Egypt?
Egypt at the time had a large Jewish population, into which they would have blended in easily. In fact, the world’s largest urban Jewish population at that time was in Alexandria, the large Egyptian city on the Mediterranean Sea, not in Jerusalem. And the gold, frankincense and myrrh brought by the wise men would have been used to meet their financial needs.

In what year did Joseph, Mary and Jesus return to Israel?
See When was Jesus born?