Matthew 2:5 is the fifth verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 in the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

. The magi

Biblical Magi

The Magi Greek: μάγοι, magoi), also referred to as the Wise Men, Kings, Astrologers, or Kings from the East, were a group of distinguished foreigners who were said to have visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh...

 have informed King Herod

Herod the Great

Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...

 that they had seen portents showing the birth of the King of the Jews

Jewish Messiah

Messiah, ; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25...

. Herod has asked the leading Jewish religious figures about how to find out where Jesus was to be born. In this verse they tell him.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea:

for thus it is written by the prophet,

The World English Bible

World English Bible

The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...

 translates the passage as:

They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea,

for this is written through the prophet,

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 2:5

This verse mainly serves as a lead in to the next one, which is a quote from Micah 5:1-3, and Micah

Micah

Micah is a given name.Micah is the name of several people in the Hebrew Bible , and means "who is like God?". The name is sometimes found with theophoric extensions...

 is thus the prophet mentioned here. It is notable that Matthew does not use his usual introduction to a quote from the Old Testament. Normally Matthew introduces a quote with the phrase "so it might be fulfilled," while in this verse he integrates it into the dialogue.

Gundry notes that the text again mentions that Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...

 is in Judea

Judea

Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...

, as does the next verse. This was previously noted in Matthew 2:1

Matthew 2:1

Matthew 2:1 is the first verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The previous verse ended with Jesus being named by his father, this verse marks the clear start of a new narrative. This verse deals with the arrival of the Magi at the court of Herod the Great in...

, and in theory the first mention was enough to disambiguate between the various towns named Bethlehem. To Gundry this is clear evidence of how important Jesus being born in Judea, at the centre of the Jewish world, was to Matthew and those he was writing for.