“Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,”
King James Version (KJV)
2:17 Then was fulfilled - A passage of Scripture, whether prophetic, historical, or poetical, is in the language of the New Testament fulfilled, when an event happens to which it may with great propriety be accommodated.
Mt 2:17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet. The saying is found in Jer 31:15, and was first spoken with reference to the desolation of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar. The survivors of the Israelites were gathered by their conquerors as captives at Ramah. There the voice of lamentation was heard from the mothers bereft of their offspring. The prophet describes Rachel, the mother of two great tribes, as weeping and refusing to be comforted. It was still more appropriate to the bereaved mothers of Bethlehem. Within half a mile of that city was the tomb of Rachel, and hence the pathetic language of the prophet is again applied to the inconsolable mothers of Bethlehem, as though the Rachel that slept in the tomb were a mourner over her slain offspring. On the site of the tomb Rachel is now a Mohammedan mosque. For the burial of Rachel, see Ge 35:19.