What was the Cave of Adullam?

One of the royal cities of Canaan, afterwards part of Judah's lot. Joshua 12:15; Joshua 15:35. It was rebuilt or fortified by Rehoboam, 2 Chr. 11:7 ; and was dwelt in by some who returned from exile. Neh. 11:30; Micah 1:15. Identified with Aid-el-ma, a name similar to Adullam, 31 39' N, 35 E. More interest attaches to the CAVE OF ADULLAM than to the city, because of its having been a stronghold of David. In the locality of the place named above there are limestone cliffs, in which are extensive excavations, one of which may have been David's cave of Adullam. This is in the low country and all David's house went down from the hills of Bethlehem to him. 1 Sam. 22:1. The traditional site is a cave in the Wady Khureitun on the east part of Judah. It is approached by a narrow footpath (now partly blocked up by a fallen rock) which could easily be defended, and the cave is very large. Both this and other caves near where the city of Adullam was located are by different travellers strongly advocated as the true site. The 'Cave of Adullam' has become a proverbial expression for a refuge in distress, because there gathered to David, besides his relatives, "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented," or bitter of soul, and he became their captain. 1 Sam. 22:1-2; 2 Sam. 23:13; 1 Chr. 11:15. David was God's anointed king, and the prophet Gad went to him, and Abiathar the priest; so that with that outcast company were God's prophet, priest, and king, though all the outward forms of worship were elsewhere: typical of the Lord Jesus in His rejection. When on earth the outward forms were not with Him; and now that He is in glory His virtual rejection is still as complete even by some in Christendom.

Next we find him in the cave of Adullam (a witness). Here a strange company gathers around the rejected king. It consisted of 400 men. He became their captain. Some of them were in distress, others in debt, and discontented. Such were attracted to the rejected David. It was a blessed scene foreshadowing Him to whom all can gather who are in distress, who feel their debt, their sinfulness, their sorrow and their need. And a greater One than David is here. Our Lord rejected, but owned by those who acknowledge their need, has power to meet it all in the riches of His grace. They with their captain, the Lord's anointed were "outside of the camp." Such a place there is today for all who know Him, who is rejected of men and so much dishonored in that which claims and bears His name. "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. 13:13). And later those who had gathered around David in the cave, and suffered with him, were specially remembered (2 Sam. 23:8-39). "If we suffer we shall reign with Him" (2 Tim. 2:12). Psalm 57 was written by David when he fled to the cave. And when he was in the cave he prayed. This prayer is embodied in Psalm 142. It was answered too when the Lord sent to him the 400 men. What food for meditation and reflection is here!

“And David departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam” (v. 1). That is where he composed the beautiful 142nd Psalm which expresses the feelings filling his soul in his solitude. “There is no man that knows me: refuge has failed me; no man cares for my soul” (v. 4). “In the way wherein I walked have they hidden a snare for me” (v. 3), This is written when — what mockery — Saul had the audacity to accuse him, saying: “My son has stirred up my servant as a lier-in-wait against me” (1 Sam. 22:8). But David found, precisely because all human refuge failed him, a sure refuge for his soul: “I cried unto Thee, Jehovah, I said, Thou art my refuge” (Ps. 142:5). He could count on the God of Israel for deliverance from his persecutors, for they were stronger than he (v. 6). Could David ever regret being found at such an extremity, abandoned by all, since there it was it that his soul knew and appreciated the sovereign refuge that is found in God? Thus the psalm ends with the assurance that filled his soul, for his time of solitude and of being forsaken would come to an end. “The righteous,” he says, “shall surround me” (v. 7).

After this pouring out of his soul, in that same cave of Adullam David receives the Lord's answer as the firstfruits of his confidence. He is no longer alone. “And his brethren and all his father's house heard it, and they went down thither to him” (1 Sam. 22:1). David, a type of the rejected Christ, becomes a center of attraction for his brothers. His family, all his relatives, gather themselves around him. They were for David, as for Christ, “the excellent of the earth.” They recognized the Lord's anointed in him, the one through whom the Lord would save His people, the instrument of grace in Israel. They knew that they, even as the head of their family, could expect nothing from the world but contempt and and persecution; so their only resource was to seek refuge in the one who from the human point of view was himself without resource.

But another class of people also sought refuge with David in the cave of Adullam: “And every one in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one of embittered spirit collected round him; and he became a captain over them” (v. 2). Not only those related to him because they shared a common origin, but also such who had no such bond, joined David. Their common characteristic was that they had lost everything. Some were “in distress,” not knowing which way to turn; others were “in debt,” unable to pay; and finally, others were “of embittered spirit,” having sorrows for which there was no remedy, created by the state of things in Israel.

All these found a sure refuge with David as is found today with a rejected Christ. But they found much more. David is able to create, to form, the most wretched beings in his own image. The reflection of his moral beauty falls on those who have nothing to bring him but their misery. In the dark cave of Adullam the light shining forth from David shines on these four hundred men who surround him, and that which grace made of them in the day of tribulation will be recognized by all eyes, acclaimed by every mouth in the day of glory which is already approaching. All these outlaws will surround the king's throne and will be called “David's mighty men” (2 Sam. 23:8).

After this his fortunes in time change. A wanderer from his home, with no place above ground in which he could be safe from the determined hostility of Saul, he has to find a resting-place below it, in a cave of the earth. Thither he betook himself, and became the centre of attraction, the rallying-point for his brethren and his father's house, as well as for all that were in distress, in debt, or discontented. God now began to show that He would gather people to His anointed one. To his followers, as Saul truly remarked, the son of Jesse had nothing externally to offer. Fields and vineyards, as yet, David could promise to none. Service, with hardship, was all he could ensure them, yet God drew hearts to him. Success often makes a person popular. David could point to nothing of that kind in his endeavours to frustrate the designs of Saul. Nevertheless, when in Adullam, he found himself at the head of a band of four hundred men. God was with David. But what creatures we are! It was after this that he went to Mizpeh of Moab, and entrusted his aged parents to the keeping of its king. It was natural to think of his parents. The Lord thought of His mother on the cross, and provided a home for her with John the Evangelist. But was David right in placing Jesse and his mother under the protecting care of an idolatrous king? How all here was determined by the king. His brethren had come to him in the cave of Adullam, but the care of their aged parents evidently devolved upon David. We may trace, too, in this step a foreshadowing of the future, when Edom, Amon, and Moab, escaping out of the northern invader, in the last days (Dan. 11:41), an opportunity will be afforded Moab of harbouring the outcasts of the nation of God. (Isa. 16:4.)

David wrote Psalm 34 at this time, which shows that he was truly restored to the Lord. Verse 4 of that Psalm is particularly significant, "I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." His painful experience was evidently profitable for him in that it drove him to the Lord. It seems therefore that the Lord guided him to escape to the cave Adullam. He did not have to remain lonely there for long. His reputation before the people could not but influence some to seek his leadership. His brothers (who were all older than he -- ch.16:11) and others of his father's house were attracted to take part with him in his exile.

Returning to the land, of which even the Philistines owned he was the king, David's heart is again drawn to the people of the land, whatever treatment he may receive at the hand of their leader. Because of Saul he is still a fugitive and we find him after leaving Gath in the cave of Adullam. There his own family come to him for protection, being no longer safe in Bethlehem: and others, to the number of four hundred, men of no reputation — "in distress," "in debt" and "bitter of soul" (1 Sam. 22) It is a change in his position. The Lord had been leading him into greater confidence in Himself, and would now train him for future rule in Israel and for delivering the people from their enemies. We must turn to 1 Chron. 11:10-47, to understand the true worth of this little band gathered to David in the cave, and to Psalm 34, to learn his state of soul at the time he received it. Saul evidently knew that he now had followers and openly sneered at his abject condition. "Will the son of Jesse," he said to his courtiers, "give everyone of you fields and vineyards?" David truly had none, but it would be difficult to find a happier man than he, then or now. The first words of his song are: "I will bless the LORD at all times, His praise shall be continually in my mouth."

We have already alluded to David's brief stay at the court of Achish, king of Gath. He is not an attractive object as we see him, feigning madness there; but apparently his faith is restored to its simplicity immediately on leaving there, as he returns to the land of Judah and seeks refuge in the cave of Adullam. Psalm 34 shows the state of his soul after he had departed from the court of Achish. The cave of Adullam has always been connected with that place of separation with a rejected Christ which is the true abode of faith in the day of His reproach. We cannot question this; and how beautiful it is to see that here are attracted to the rejected One those whose need brings them there. It needs but little interpretation to see — in those who were debtors, and discontented, and with grievances — ourselves, who have been driven by our very needs to find our resources in One who, though rejected by man, has power to remit all debts, to heal all sorrow, and remove all discontent.

David escapes and finds a temporary shelter in the cave of Adullam. In his own country, and hiding in a cave! Never so low before, he never felt more the effects of Saul's hatred; but it is the moment when his brethren and all his father's house come to him. They would share in his sorrows. Doubtless it was no small comfort to the hunted man. Again we turn to Him in Whom all was fulfilled, Who felt far more deeply both the sorrow of rejection, and joy in the few that followed Him. These were to Him "brother and sister and mother," they were of His Father's house and did His will. It is when David is manifestly a fugitive that his brethren join him; and when the Lord is seen as the rejected One, publicly and with scorn by the rulers (Matt. 12), He, in words that exclude the nation, declared who were then in nearest relationship to Him. But there is more to be seen in this cave of Adullam. If the brethren and the father's house be taken as the remnant that now are hidden through the love of their Messiah until the fury of the oppression be quenched in His judgment, who are the outcasts that find refuge and shelter with David in the same hiding place? Israel in the coming day will be as outcasts, but they are also brethren and of His house after the flesh. Is there not here the intimation of the coming in of Gentiles while Christ is yet hidden above? David's brethren and the outcasts become one company, even as now grace makes of the twain (see Eph. 2:11-15) one new man. Christ the head; a much closer tie than being Captain over them, as David was to his company. The distressed, the indebted, the discontented, in the cave of Adullam is a striking though imperfect figure of the grace of the Lord Jesus, Who received sinners and did eat with them: the lepers, paralytics, blind and impotent, publicans, and sinners, all that came were received, none refused.

The history of the kings of Israel certainly contains a wealth of practical instruction for the life of faith. Scripture gives a very beautiful description of the relationship between David and his men. Who were those that followed the God-anointed but man-rejected king? In 1 Samuel 22 David gathers a number of men around himself in the cave Adullam, who are described as "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented" (v. 2). What a beautiful picture of all those sinners that have come to the Lord with all their sins, burdens and debt, recognising Him as their Lord. "And he became a captain over them" (1 Sam. 22:2). The Lord is still looking for those that are willing to share with Him, their "captain," the place of rejection in this world.

Here then we find David, as we are told, in the cave of Adullam; "and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him." But not they only. These might be supposed to have a claim; they certainly had a relationship already; but there were others there who gathered to him because as yet they had none, having lost all. "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves to him." It is a poor thing to be a contented optimist where the things we are sanctioning are contrary to God. And those are not to be envied who, being in evil case condemned by the word of God, boast because they are not given to change. Happier, far happier, they who prove all things, and hold fast that which is good. There were souls who groaned in Israel. But were they discontented when they surrounded David? I grant you most entirely it was a paltry-looking set to gather, and in the obscurest of places; but what was David to them? and what did he make them? All the world felt and bore witness in the day of his and their glory, after they had been fashioned in the day of trial and sorrow and reproach by the mighty action of the same grace that shone in David.