[Elsie]

so he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,

Getting to Egypt would have taken the Holy Family BACK thru the area where the search for these two and unders were being killed.

I doubt I'd subject my family to even the REMOTE possibility that...

[Hootowl]

Matthew does not specify when Joseph took his family and fled to Egypt. It says “Mathew 2:13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’” “Herod is going to” implies that Herod had not yet. I give God credit for timing this in such a way that Joseph led his family through Bethlehem a second time BEFORE Herod’s murderous edict.