Difference between revisions of "Adullam"

<p> <translit> a </translit> - <translit> dul´am </translit> ( <span> עדלּם </span> , <i> <translit> ‛ădhullām </translit> </i> ): </p> <p> (1) A city, with dependencies, and in ancient times having a king, mentioned five times in the [[Old]] Testament, each time in a list with other cities ( <span> [[Joshua]] 12:15 </span> ; <span> Joshua 15:35 </span> ; <span> 2 [[Chronicles]] 11:7 </span> ; <span> [[Micah]] 1:15 </span> ; <span> [[Nehemiah]] 11:30 </span> ). [[In]] the list of 31 kings whom Joshua smote, [[Adullam]] follows Hormah, Arad, Libnah, and precedes Makkedah. [[Among]] the 14 [[Judahite]] cities of the first group in "the lowland" Adullam is mentioned between [[Jarmuth]] and Socoh. In the list of 15 cities fortified by [[Rehoboam]] it appears between [[Socoh]] and Gath. Micah gives what may be a list of cities concerned in some [[Assyrian]] approach to Jerusalem; it begins with Gath, includes Lachish, and ends with [[Mareshah]] and Adullam. And Adullam is still in the same company in the list in Nehemiah of the cities "and their villages" where the men of [[Judah]] then dwelt. In the time of the patriarchs it was a place to which men "went down" from the central mountain ridge ( <span> [[Genesis]] 38:1 </span> ). [[Judas]] Maccabeus found it still existing as a city (2 Macc 12:38). [[Common]] opinion identifies Adullam with the ruin <i> <translit> ‛Aid </translit> </i> - <i> <translit> el </translit> </i> - <i> <translit> Ma </translit> </i> , 13 miles West-Southwest from [[Bethlehem]] (see <i> HGHL </i> , 229ff). This is in spite of the testimony of the <i> [[Onomasticon]] </i> , which, it is alleged, confuses Adullam with Eglon. [[Presumably]] the city gave its name to the cave of Adullam, the cave being near the city. </p> <p> (2) The cave of Adullam, David's headquarters during a part of the time when he was a fugitive from [[Saul]] ( <span> 1 [[Samuel]] 22:1 </span> ; <span> 2 Samuel 23:13 </span> ; <span> 1 Chronicles 11:15 </span> ). [[Sufficient]] care has not been exercised in reading the [[Bible]] statements on this subject. To begin with, [[Hebrew]] syntax permits of the use of the word "cave" collectively; it may denote a group or a region of caves; it is not shut up to the meaning that there was one immense cave in which [[David]] and his 400 men all found accommodations at once. [[All]] reasonings based on this notion are futile. </p> <p> Further, by the most natural syntax of <span> 2 Samuel 23:13-17 </span> (duplicated with unimportant variations in <span> 1 Chronicles 11:15-19 </span> ), that passage describes two different events, and does not connect the cave of Adullam with the second of these. "And three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the [[Philistines]] was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem. And David longed, and said, [[Oh]] that one would give me water," etc. [[Concerning]] these three seniors among David's "mighty men" it is narrated, first, that they were David's comrades in a certain battle, a battle which the [[Chronicler]] identifies with Pas-dammim, where David slew Goliath; second, that they joined David at the cave of Adullam, presumably during the time when he was hiding from Saul; third, that at a later time, when the Philistines were in the valley of [[Rephaim]] (compare <span> 2 Samuel 5:18 </span> ), and David was "in the stronghold" (Josephus says "at Jerusalem," <i> [[Ant]] </i> , VII, xii, 4), these men broke through the [[Philistine]] lines and brought him water from the home well of Bethlehem. </p> <p> The cave of Adullam, like the city, was "down" from the central ridge ( <span> 1 Samuel 22:1 </span> ; <span> 2 Samuel 23:13 </span> ). The city was in Judah; and David and his men were in Judah ( <span> 1 Samuel 23:3 </span> ) at a time when, apparently, the cave was their headquarters. Gad's advice to David to return to Judah ( <span> 1 Samuel 22:3 </span> , <span> 1 Samuel 22:5 </span> ) was given at a time when he had left the cave of Adullam. [[If]] the current identification of <i> <translit> ‛Aid </translit> </i> - <i> <translit> el </translit> </i> - <i> <translit> Ma </translit> </i> as Adullam is correct, the cave of Adullam is probably the cave region which has been found in that vicinity. </p> <p> It has been objected that this location is too far from Bethlehem for David's men to have brought the water from there. To this it is replied that thirteen or fourteen miles is not an excessive distance for three exceptionally vigorous men to go and return; and a yet stronger reply is found in the consideration just mentioned, that the place from which the men went for the water was not the cave of Adullam. The one argument for the tradition to the effect that Chariton's cave, a few miles [[Southeast]] of Bethlehem, is Adullam, is the larger size of this cave, as compared with those near <i> <translit> ‛Aid </translit> </i> - <i> <translit> el </translit> </i> - <i> <translit> Ma </translit> </i> . We have already seen that this has no force. </p> <p> In our current speech "cave of Adullam" suggests an aggregation of ill-assorted and disreputable men. This is not justified by the Bible record. David's men included his numerous and respectable kinsmen, and the representative of the priesthood, and some of David's military companions, and some men who afterward held high office in Israel. Even those who are described as being in distress and debt and bitter of soul were doubtless, many of them, persons who had suffered at the hands of Saul on account of their friendship for David. [[Doubtless]] they included mere adventurers in their number; but the [[Scriptural]] details and the circumstances alike indicate that they were mainly homogeneous, and that most of them were worthy citizens. </p>

<p> (Heb. [[Adullam]] <span> ’ </span> , <span> עֲדֻלָּם </span> , prob. <span> justice of </span> the <span> people; </span> Sept. <span> Ο᾿δολλάμ </span> , Odollam; and so in the Apocrypha, <span> 2 [[Maccabees]] 12:38 </span> , and Josephus, Ant. 8:10, 1; but Adullami, <span> Ἀδουλλάμη </span> in <span> Ant. </span> 6, 12, 3), an old city ( <span> [[Genesis]] 38:1 </span> ; <span> Genesis 38:12 </span> ; <span> Genesis 38:20 </span> ) in the plain country of the tribe of [[Judah]] ( <span> [[Joshua]] 15:35 </span> ), and one of the royal cities of the [[Canaanites]] ( <span> Joshua 12:15 </span> ). It was one of the towns which [[Rehoboam]] fortified ( <span> 2 [[Chronicles]] 11:7 </span> ; <span> [[Micah]] 1:15 </span> ), and is mentioned after the captivity ( <span> [[Nehemiah]] 11:30 </span> ; <span> 2 Maccabees 12:38 </span> ). [[Eusebius]] and [[Jerome]] (Onomast. s.v.) state that it existed in their time as a large village, ten miles to the east of Eleutheropolis, by which (unless, as [[Reland]] thinks, Paloest. p.547, they confound it with Eglon) they probably mean north-east (Keil, Comment. in loc. Josh.; Schwarz, Palest. p. 87), possibly at el-Keishum, near [[Timnath]] (comp. <span> Genesis 38:12 </span> ); or perhaps (see Tobler, <span> Drit. Wanderung, </span> p. 150) at the present village <span> Beit [[Ula]] </span> (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 282). It is evident that Adullam was one of the cities of "the valley" or plain between the hill country of Judah and the sea; and from its place in the lists of names (especially <span> 2 Chronicles 11:8 </span> ), it appears to have been not very far from the [[Philistine]] city of Gath. </p> <p> This circumstance would suggest that the CAVE OF ADULLAM ( <span> 2 [[Samuel]] 23:13 </span> ; <span> 1 Chronicles 11:15 </span> ), to which [[David]] withdrew immediately from [[Gath]] ( <span> 1 Samuel 22:1 </span> ), was near the city of that name (see Stanley, <span> Palestine, </span> p. 254, note). But there is no passage of [[Scripture]] which connects the city and the cave, and it is certainly not in a plain that one would look for a cave capable of affording a secure retreat to 400 men; nor has any such cave been found in that quarter. It is therefore far from improbable that the cave of Adullam was in the mountainous wilderness in the east of Judah toward the [[Dead]] Sea, where such caves occur, and where the western names (as Carmel) are sometimes repeated. Accordingly, we actually find in this very region the name <span> Dhullam, </span> belonging to a tribe of Arabs who encamp here for pasturage, but properly belong to a more western district around [[Beersheba]] (Robinson <span> ’ </span> s <span> Researches, </span> 2, 473), and whose predatory character well befits the ancient notoriety of the spot (De Saulcy <span> ’ </span> s Narrative, 1, 434, 435). [[May]] not this same nomadic habit have transferred the name of the city to the cave in former times likewise? This view is favored by the fact that the usual haunts of David were in this quarter ( <span> 1 Chronicles 11:15 </span> ); whence he moved into the land of Moab, which was quite contiguous, whereas he must have crossed the whole breadth of the land, if the cave of Adullam had been near the city of that name. [[Tradition]] (William of Tyre, <span> [[De]] Bello </span> Sacro, 15, 6) fixes the cave on the borders of the Dead Sea, about six miles south-east of Bethlehem, in the side of a deep ravine (Wady Khureitun) which passes below the [[Frank]] mountain on the south (Robinson <span> ’ </span> s Researches, 2, 175). It is an immense natural cavern, the mouth of which can be approached only on foot alone the side of the cliff. Irby and Mangles, who visited it without being aware that it was the reputed cave of Adullam, state that it "runs in by a long, winding, narrow passage, with small chambers or cavities on either side. We soon came to a large chamber with natural arches of great height; from this last there were numerous passages, leading in all directions, occasionally joined by others at right angles, and forming a perfect labyrinth, which our guides assured us had never been perfectly explored, the people being afraid of losing themselves. The passages are generally four feet high by three feet wide, and were all on a level with each other. There were a few petrifactions where we were; nevertheless the grotto was perfectly clean, and the air pure and good" (Travels, p. 340, 341). It seems probable that David, as a native of Bethlehem, must have been well acquainted with this remarkable spot, and had probably often availed himself of its shelter when out with his father <span> ’ </span> s flocks. Dr. Thomson, who explored it to some extent, thinks that it corresponds to the [[Biblical]] account of David <span> ’ </span> s fastness (Land and Book, 2, 427). Others (as Stanley, Palestine, p. 254) think the cave in question was one of the numerous excavations found in the soft lime-stone hills along the eastern edge of the "plain" of Judah, particularly those at Deir Dubban (Van de Velde, Narrative, 2, 156, 157); but these are evidently artificial, being apparently enlargements of naturally small crevices for the purpose of magazines of grain (Robinson, Researches, 2, 352-354, 395, 396). (See <a> CAVE </a> ) <span> (of Adullam); </span> ODOLLAM (See <a> ODOLLAM </a> ) . </p>