Young children would be killed after the Messiah’s birth. Something similar happened centuries earlier when Egypt’s Pharaoh decreed that Hebrew male babies be cast into the Nile River.
فَمَرْيَمُ كَانَتْ عَذْرَاءَ حِينَ حَبِلَتْ بِيَسُوعَ بِوَاسِطَةِ ٱلرُّوحِ ٱلْقُدُسِ ،‏ كَمَا يُؤَكِّدُ مَتَّى وَلُوقَا فِي إِنْجِيلَيْهِمَا .‏ —‏ مت ١ :‏ ​ ١٨ -‏ ٢٥ ؛‏ لو ١ :‏ ​ ٢٦ -‏ ٣٥‏ .‏