So having prayed and desired to learn it, not long after he beholds by the Holy Spirit what will be in the future; for God has promised to His people that he will hear them even while they speak. So his prayer being heard he (c) is favoured with an oracle which cries "Bethlehem," that being the place of the Lord, and the tabernacle of the God of Jacob. And so when the Holy Spirit prophesied that this was within him, he, listening to his inner voice, adds: "Lo, we heard of it in Ephratha." And Ephratha is the same as Bethlehem, as is clear from Genesis, where it is said of Rachel, "And they buried her in the Hippodrome of Ephratha,'' and this is Bethlehem. And the previous prophecy ran: "And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratha." "Behold," he says, "we have heard it! "—evidently (d) meaning the birth of Christ and the entering of the God of Jacob into His tabernacle. For what else could the tabernacle of the God of Jacob be but the Body of Christ, which was born at Bethlehem, in which, as in a tabernacle, the divinity of the Only-begotten dwelt? And the habitation is not said to be simply of God, but is qualified as of the God of Jacob, that we may know that it is the God that dwells therein, Who was seen by Jacob in human form and shape, wherefore he was deemed worthy of the name, Seer of God, f6r such is the translation of his name. And I have established in the early part of this work that He that was seen by Jacob was none other than the Word of God. Bethlehem was therefore revealed to David when he prayed and desired to know the place and the habitation of the Lord and God of Jacob, wherefore he said: "Behold, we heard it at Ephiatha," and added: "Let us worship at (348) the place where his feet stood." Therefore in these words the Lord God of Jacob Himself foretold that His own place and habitation would be in Ephratha, which is Bethlehem, agreeing with the prophecy of Micah, which said: "And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratha, out of thee shall come a governor, and his goings forth are from eternity," which, when we lately examined, we found could only apply to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who was born at Bethlehem according to the predictions. For (b) it is certain that no one else can be shewn to have come forth from there with glory after the date of the prophecy: there was no king, or prophet, or any other Hebrew saint who can be shewn to have been of David's seed, and also born at Bethlehem, except our Lord and Saviour, the Christ of God. We must, therefore, own that He, and no one else, is the subject of this prophecy, and (c) for the additional reason that further on the same Psalm proves it, calling Him Christ by name, where it says: "For the sake of David thy servant, turn not away the face of thy Christ." And again: "There will I raise up a horn for David, I have prepared a lantern for my Christ, his enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon him my holiness shall flower." Where else does he say: "I will raise up a horn for David," but in Bethlehem—Ephratha? (d) For it was there the horn of David, the Christ according to the flesh, arose like a great light, and there the God of the Universe prepared the lantern of the Christ. And the human tabernacle was the lantern as it were of his spiritual light, through which, like an earthen vessel, as if through a lantern, He poured forth the rays of His own light on all who were oppressed by ignorance of God and thick darkness.