ADULLAM (Heb. ad-ool lawna an old city (Gen. xxxviiia, 12, 20) in the plain country of the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv:35), and one of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Josh. xii:i5).
(1) Fortified Town. It was one of the towns which Rehoboam fortified (2 Chron. xi:7; Micah i :15). and is mentioned after the captivity (Nell. xl :3o; 2 Mace. xii :38). Eusebius and Jerome state that it existed in their time as a large village, ten miles to the east of Eleutherop olis; but they follow the Sept. in confounding it with Eglon. However, it is certain that these were different places, and had distinct kings in the time of Joshua (xii :12 15). 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 2 Chron. xi :7). it appears not to have been far from the Philistine city of Gath.
(2) Cave of Adullam. This circumstance would suggest that the 'cave of Adullam' (I Sam. xxii :I), to which David withdrew immediately from Gath, was near the city of that name. 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 40o men; nor has any such cave been found in that quarter.
(3) Mountainous Region. It is therefore far from improbable that the cave of Adul lam was in the mountainous wilderness in the west of Judah towards the Dead Sea, where such caves occur, and where the west ern names (as Carmel) are sometimes repeated. This conjecture is favored by the fact that the usual haunts of David were in this quarter ; 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.
(4) Probable Location. Other reasons occur which would take too much room to state; but the result is, that there appears at length good grounds for the local tradition which fixes the cave on the borders of the Dead Sea, although there is no certainty with regard to the particular cave usually pointed out. The cave so designated
is at a point to which David was far more likely to summon his parents, whom he intended to take from Bethlehem into Moab, than to any place in the western plains. It is about six miles south west of Bethlehem, in the side of a deep ravine (Wady Khureitun) which passes below the Frank mountain (see HERODION) on the south. It is an immense natural cavern, the mouth of which can be approached only on foot along the side of the cliff.
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 hig father's flocks. It would therefore naturally occur to him as a place of refuge when he fled from Gath; and his purpose of forming a band of fol lowers was much more likely to be realized here, in the neighborhood of his native place, than in the westward plain, where the city of Adullam lay.
As supporting the opposite view, W. Muir, in Hastings' Bib.. Dict., says: "The Cave of Adullam, famous through its association with the early his tory of David, has usually been supposed to have had no connection with the city of that name, and has been located by tradition, as well as by many travelers, in the Wady Kbareitun, about six miles southeast of Bethlehem. The most recent au thorities, however, are strongly of opinion that an entirely suitable site for it can be found in the vicinity of the city. and that there is no reason for separating the two. Half-way between Shoe hoh and Keilah, and ten miles northwest of He bron, some caves have been found, the position of which suits all we are told about David's strong hold, and which are at once central and defensible. It may be regarded as practically settled that the Cave of Adullam was not far from where David had his encounter with Goliath."