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Mountain of
Judah and Shephelah
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71. Ephratha |
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Ephratha (Gen 35:16,19), the area of Bethlehem, the city of David, in which Christ was born. It belongs to the tribe of Judah, though many people wrongly ascribe it to the tribe of Benjamin. There they buried Rachel along the road, at the [fourth] fifth milestone from Jerusalem, in the place which the Septuagint call the Hippodrome. [Her tomb is shown to this very day. And the father of Bethlehem was called] Ephratha, as we read in the Chronicles (1 Chron 4:4), as we said above. (Eusebius, Onomasticon 82:10-14; Jerome 83:12-16) |
Photo: A view of Bethlehem fertile countryside. |
