Translation
And when the days for their purification
Go to footnote numberwere fulfilled according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him to JERUSALEM to present Him to the LORD,
Paraphrase
When the 40 days had passed that were required for her to purify herself from bleeding, just like the Law of Moses taught, they brought Him to THE PLACE WITH PEACEFUL FOUNDATIONS to present Him to THE SUPREME RULER,
Footnotes
1: “days of their purification:”
“Their” refers to Mary and the baby. Since the baby was a boy, he had already gone through his “special ceremony,” that of circumcision. Now it was Mary’s turn to have a ceremony just for her. While she was the only one that needed to be purified at this juncture, the baby had to be “presented” to a priest. The priest probably checked to make sure the baby boy had been circumcised, but that is only a guess on my part. Since there were two of them that needed to go the temple that day, the author puts them together and says “the days of their purification,” even though technically only she had to be purified.
The cleansing Mary had to go through required the shedding of blood; she was even sprinkled with some of that blood! Here was a picture of the blood Jesus would shed, which would be sprinkled figuratively on all those who believe in Him.
It is ironic that the cleansing for the uncleanness that came from bleeding required more blood to be shed. And you may wonder why she needed to be purified after something that is so natural and the bleeding involved was not her fault.
The Law was intended to teach, not to save. It taught by training the heart. What was the Law teaching by requiring cleansing after bleeding? The law had several regulations related to blood, and all of them were intended to highlight the importance of blood as the symbol of life itself.
The regulations a Jewish woman needed to follow were different for the birth of a baby boy than for the birth of a baby girl; for the boy it took 40 days and for a girl it took 80. To see my discussion of the details behind this difference, and how it did not make one more important than the other, see my comments about Leviticus 12:5.
Joseph and Mary remained in Bethlehem for at least 40 days
We do not know the timing of the visit from the Wisemen, but we can be sure that they did not come during the first 40 days after Jesus was born.
I believe it was not two years after Jesus was born because the star in the East appeared about 2 years before He was born.
My conclusion is that the Wisemen appeared somewhere after 40 days, giving enough time for Joseph to enclose the cave and make the front of it look like a house.