The place was the best then at disposal.
The guests were simple folks, by habits of life easily satisfied.
To the Jew of that period, moreover, abode in caverns was a familiar idea, made so by every-day occurrences, and by what he heard of Sabbaths in the synagogues.

How much of Jewish history, how many of the many exciting incidents in that history, had transpired in caves! Yet further, these people were Jews of Bethlehem, with whom the idea was especially commonplace; for their locality abounded with caves great and small, some of which had been dwelling-places from the time of the Emim and Horites.

No more was there offence to them in the fact that the cavern to which they were being taken had been, or was, a stable.

They were the descendants of a race of herdsmen, whose flocks habitually shared both their habitations and wanderings.

In keeping with a custom derived from Abraham, the tent of the Bedawin yet shelters his horses and children alike.