When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:16-18)
This passage from Jeremiah is one of the turning points of the whole Bible. Not long after these verses in Jeremiah 31 a new covenant is announced. God says that it will be a new deal with the people of God. God will be their God, they will be his people. He will forgive their sins.
It seems as though before this covenant is announced there will be sadness: Rachel will weep for her children. Read Jeremiah 31 - and yet God will comfort her. Rachel is one of the Matriarch's of Israel. Married to Jacob, she bears him children. Rachel's tomb was thought to be be near Bethlehem. (Ramah however is thought to be North of Jerusalem)
I think ultimately this sadness that precedes the new covenant is the horror of the death of Christ. At his death the mothers of Israel mourn (which actually happens in the gospels). However the slaughter of the chidren of Bethlehem is like a pre-tremor ... there will be sadness, but very soon there will be comfort.
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