Consider the following passage in Matthew 2:18:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.” [1]
There are some apparent problems interpreting this literally. Firstly, Ramah isn’t Bethlehem, but a town in Benjamin. Secondly, Rachel clearly isn’t weeping, as she died over a thousand years before this.
However, we should look at the original context of this verse, which is a quote from Jeremiah 31:15. In Jeremiah 40:1 the prophet records that when the Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom of Judah they took the captives to Ramah, before taking them into exile. Therefore, there may be allusion to the captivity of the southern kingdom.
However, Jeremiah 31:9, 18 and 20 all refer to Ephraim, which is one of the tribes in the northern kingdom, and so the immediate context appears to be the captivity of the northern kingdom. The northern exile did not occur in or from Ramah, but rather was heard in Ramah, i.e. the cry of mothers watching their children die in the war or go into exile was heard throughout the land. Furthermore, Rachel had been dead for hundreds of years when this occurred, so Jeremiah didn’t mean Rachel herself was weeping. Rather, she is a picture of Hebrew mothers who long for their children.
The meaning of the passage in Jeremiah then is of grief by mothers who have lost their children, either in the war or by going into exile, which is heard in far-off towns.
In quoting this passage Matthew appears to be applying the literal meaning of Jeremiah’s words to a similar situation where children are lost and mothers weep. Thus, this quotation actually makes good sense interpreted literally.
[1] New King James Version, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thinking About The Truth 