Cave of Adullam

The Cave of Adullam was originally a stronghold referred to in the Old Testament, near the town of Adullam, where future King David sought refuge from King Saul.[1]

Cave of Adullam, 1880

The word "cave" is usually used but "fortress", which has a similar appearance in writing, is used as well. Wilhelm Gesenius' work Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures provides notes supporting Adullam as meaning "a hiding place".[2] Brown, Driver, and Briggs' Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament cite the Arabic word 'adula to mean "turn aside" and suggest Adullam to mean "retreat, refuge".[3]

During this period, David passed up several opportunities to kill Saul, who in turn was attempting to kill his young rival, whose followers believed had been chosen by God to succeed King Saul. David refused to fight unfairly, for instance by killing the bellicose Saul in his sleep. According to the Old Testament, God honored David's high ethical standards and soon King David and his Mighty Men who had once hidden in the Cave of Adullam, were renowned throughout Israel for their deeds of valor.

The term "Cave of Adullam" has been used by political commentators referring to any small group remote from power but planning to return. Thus in Walter Scott's 1814 novel Waverley when the Jacobite rising of 1745 marches south through England, the Jacobite Baron of Bradwardine welcomes scanty recruits while remarking that they closely resemble David's followers at the Cave of Adullam; "videlicet, every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented".[4]

References
  1. 1Samuel 22:1
  2. Tregelles, Samuel (1857). Gesenius's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, Translated, With Additions and Corrections from the Author's Thesaurus and Other Works. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, Limited. pp. 608d (DCVIII) – via archive.org.
  3. Brown, F., Driver, S. R., Briggs, C. A., Strong, J., & Gesenius, W. (1994). The Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament: With an appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic : coded with the numbering system from Strong's Exhaustive concordance of the Bible. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers. p. 726 – via archive.org.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Adullam" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 218. cite Waverley, chapter lvii.
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