Genesis 35:16Plain English VersionJacob and his family left Bethel, and they started going towards the town called Efrath. At that time, Jacob’s wife Rachel had a baby growing inside her. And while they were still a long way from Efrath, the time came for Rachel to have her baby. A woman came to help Rachel have her baby, but Rachel had a lot of pain, and she had trouble having that baby. Then Rachel had her baby, but that pain was really bad. That woman said to her, “Don’t be frightened. You have another son.” See the chapter |
Jacob also said to Joseph, “I want your 2 sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to have their own tribes and their own land, because your mother Rachel only gave me 2 sons. She had you and your brother Benjamin. And then she died, and I was really sad. At that time, we were going from Paddan Aram country to Canaan country. Your mother died in Canaan country, on the way to the town called Efrath. And I buried her body near the road that goes to Efrath.” Another name for that town is Bethlehem.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea country. At that time, the big boss over that country was called Herod. There were some wise men in a country to the east of Judea. They always looked at the stars, and one night they saw a special star in the sky. So they went west to Jerusalem, the city in Judea country.
At the time when Joseph, Mary and Jesus were going to Egypt, Herod waited for those wise men to come back, but they tricked him. They didn’t come back to him. Then he got really angry. He remembered their story about when they first saw the star, so he sent his soldiers to Bethlehem, and he told them to kill all the little boys up to 2 years old. So they killed all the little boys around Bethlehem. Herod wanted to make sure that Jesus was dead.