Matthew 2:13 is the thirteenth verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 in the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

. The magi

Magi

Magi is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote a follower of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which...

 have left after paying homage to the young Jesus. In this verse an angel warns Joseph

Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....

 that he must flee.

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

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.

The World English Bible

World English Bible

The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...

 translates the passage as:

Now when they had departed, behold,

an angel of the Lord appeared to

Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise

and take the young child and his

mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay

there until I tell you, for Herod will

seek the young child to destroy him."

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 2:13

This verse opens a clear second section of Matthew 2 launching a series of dream inspired wanderings by the Holy Family. Its content is closely linked with the second half of Matthew 1

Matthew 1

Matthew 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It contains two distinct sections. The first lists the genealogy of Jesus's legal father Joseph from Abraham...

. Joseph, after being ignored in the first half of the chapter, is again the central character. As in Matthew 1 Joseph is contacted by God in a dream. This verse is again clear that the child is not Joseph's.

Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 was the logical place to seek refuge it was outside the dominions of King Herod and throughout the Old Testament it was the standard place of exile for those unsafe in Palestine. At the time it had a large Jewish population, with about a third of Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 being Jewish. Both regions were at the time part of the Roman Empire, making travel between them easy and relatively safe. The trip to Egypt occurs nowhere else in the New Testament gospels. The mention of Egypt is in keeping with Matthew's interest in Old Testament sources, with the links to Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

being the most prominent.