Matthew 2:15

Until the death of Herod] Herod died probably 4 b.c., possibly 3 b.c., so that the sojourn in Egypt was short, perhaps only a few months.

Out of Egypt] Hosea 11:1. It is impossible that the flight into Egypt was invented to fulfil this prophecy, which in Hosea is simply an historical allusion to the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. My son] in the original passage is the nation, not the Messiah, and so the LXX understood it. St. Matthew, however, saw in the history of Israel a typical foreshadowing of the life of our Lord, and so, in accordance with rabbinical methods of interpretation, applied it to Jesus. Here St. Matthew quotes directly from the Heb. The LXX has 'Out of Egypt did I call his (Israel's) children.'