2 ¹ JESUS WAS BORN at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of Herod. After his birth astrologers from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 ² asking, 'Where is the child who is born to be king of the Jews? Or: Where is the king of the Jews who has just been born? We observed the rising of his star, and we have come to pay him homage.' 2 ³ King Herod was greatly perturbed when he heard this; and so was the whole of Jerusalem. 2 ⁴ He called a meeting of the chief priests and lawyers of the Jewish people, and put before them the question: 'Where is it that the Messiah is to be born?' 2 ⁵ 'At Bethlehem in Judaea', they replied; and they referred him to the prophecy which reads:

2 ⁷ Herod next called the astrologers to meet him in private, and ascertained from them the time when the star had appeared. 2 ⁸ He then sent them on to Bethlehem, and said, 'Go and make a careful inquiry for the child. When you have found him, report to me, so that I may go myself and pay him homage.'
2 ⁹ They set out at the king's bidding; and the star which they had seen at its rising went ahead of them until it stopped above the place where the child lay. 2 ¹⁰ At the sight of the star they were overjoyed. 2 ¹¹ Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and bowed to the ground in homage to him; then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 2 ¹² And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned home another way.