Matthew 2:6

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the

least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall

come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least among

the princes of Judah: for out of you shall come forth

a governor, who shall shepherd my people, Israel."

For a collection of other versions see BibleHub Matthew 2:6

This verse is taken from Micah 5:2. Unlike the previous time Matthew quoted the Old Testament in Matthew 1:23 the wording does not seem to be taken from the Septuagint, rather it seems to be an original translation from the Hebrew. Matthew's version differs substantially from both the Septuagint and Masoretic.[1]

Matthew's translation has several important differences from that found in the Septuagint. The King James Version of Micah 5:2, based on the Septuagint, reads:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah,

though thou be little among the

thousands of Judah, yet out of

thee shall he come forth unto

me that is to be ruler in Israel;

Ephratah was a town near the Bethlehem in Judea. Clarification was needed as there was at least one other town named Bethlehem at the time. Referencing a larger neighbour as well as the province were accepted methods of clarification at the time, but it is not clear why Matthew changes the form. Two other references to Bethlehem being in Judea in Matthew 2:1 and 2:5 indicate that Matthew was keen to show that Jesus was born in Judea. In this verse he does not use the same spelling he did previously, thus also linking to the Old Testament figure Judah.

In the second line, the author of Matthew reverses the meaning of the original. The original states that Bethlehem was a town of little importance in which a great thing would happen. Matthew's rewording creates the meaning that it would not be a town of little importance, since great things would happen there.

Brown also reports that Matthew replaces the word ruler in the original, perhaps to emphasize that despite what most Jews were predicting, the messiah would not be a political figure, only a spiritual one.[2]

The portion of Micah where this quote is found is clearly discussing the messiah and states that like King David the messiah's origin would be in Bethlehem. At the time, it was not widely accepted that the messiah would necessarily be born in Bethlehem, just that his ancestors would have been. It was thus not considered essential for a messiah to be someone born in that town, but it was considered a reasonable locale for a messiah to originate -- far more reasonable than the peripheral and little known town of Nazareth in Galilee where Jesus grew up.