Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 2:15

"and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt did I call my son." — Matthew 2:15 (ASV)

The death of Herod. Herod died in the thirty-seventh year of his reign. It is not certainly known in what year he began his reign, and therefore it is impossible to determine the time that Joseph remained in Egypt.

The best chronologers have believed that he died somewhere between two and four years after the birth of Christ, but the particular time cannot now be determined. Nor can it be determined at what age Jesus was taken into Egypt.

It seems probable that Jesus was thought to be about a year old (Matthew 2:16), and consequently, the time He remained in Egypt was not long. Herod died of a most painful and loathsome disease in Jericho. (See Barnes on Matthew 2:16; also Josephus, Antiquities 17.10.)

That it might be fulfilled. This language is recorded in Hosea 11:1. There, it evidently speaks of God’s calling His people out of Egypt under Moses .

It might be said to be fulfilled in God’s calling Jesus from Egypt, because the words in Hosea also fittingly expressed this. The same love that led Him to deliver His people Israel from the land of Egypt now also led Him to deliver His Son from that place; indeed, the words used by Hosea would express both events. (See Barnes on Matthew 1:22.)

Perhaps, also, the passage in Hosea became a proverb to express any great deliverance from danger; and so it could be said to be fulfilled in Christ, as other proverbs are in cases to which they are applicable.

It should not be supposed that the passage in Hosea was a prophecy of the Messiah, but was only used by Matthew fittingly to express the event.