In Hebrew, the word “Bethlehem” is Beit-Lehem, or “house of bread.” It is a suburb of Jerusalem and was a small town at the time Jesus was born. Even now, there are only about 25,000 people in Bethlehem. The people of the time didn’t think anything of importance could come out of Bethlehem. But King David was born there, so people remembered the town for that.
The gospels say that Rome was conducting a census for tax purposes. The Passover pilgrimage festival was a good time to do that. The Romans could count how many lambs were sacrificed in the temple, multiply by 10, and get a good idea of how many Jews were there. The scriptures say that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem because he was of the House of David. The Romans were interested in the descendants of David because prophecy said a king would arise from David’s lineage.