Bede : David, however, was the son of an Ephrathite man. David indeed, as always, is the Lord Christ, who is the son of an Ephrathite man, that is, a fruitful one; because from that ancient people of the Hebrews, who by believing bore many fruits of righteousness, he deigned to take flesh. Although he is also always born and nurtured in the fruitful heart of his faithful ones through love. Not only the mystical names of the place, of which the interpretation is well-known, but also the place itself, Ephrathah or Bethlehem, bore witness to Christ being born there. And fittingly that elderly man, that is, a people mature in the knowledge of the law, is remembered to have had eight sons, because after the proclamation of the Sabbath and the Old Testament, he also foretold the grace of the Gospel and the faith of the resurrection, which was to come through Christ. — Commentary on Samuel