ADULLAM (61N ; Sept. '05oXXclp), an old city (Gen. xxxviii. i, 20) in the plain country of the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 35), and one of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Josh. xii. 15). It was one of the towns which Rehoboam fortified (2 Chron. xi. 7 ; Micah i. 15), and is mentioned after the Captivity (Neh. xi. 30 ; 2 Macc. 12, 38). Eusebius and Jerome state that it existed in their time as a large village, ten miles to the east of Eleutheropolis • but they follow the Sept. in con• founding it with Eglon (11}0), whereas 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 z Chron. xi. 7), it appears not to have been far from the Philistine city of Gath. This circumstance would suggest that the cave of Adul lam' (r Sam. xxii. t), 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. It is therefore far from improbable that the cave of Adullam was in the mountainous wilderness in the east of Judah towards the Dead Sea, where such caves occur, and where the western names (as Carmel) are sometimes repeated. This conjecture is favoured 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. Other reasons occur which would take too much room to state ; but the result is, that there appear 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' [so called] 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. Irby and Mangles, who visited it without being aware that it was the reputed cave of Adul lam, state that it runs in by a long winding, nar row 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 direc tions, 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' pp. 340, 341; see also Thomson, The land and the Book, ch. 39, vol. ii. P. 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'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 followers was much more likely to be realized here, in the neigh bourhood of his native place, than in the westward plain, where the city of Adullam lay. These cir cumstances have considerable weight when taken in connection with what has already been adduced; but the question is one which there is no means of deciding with certainty.—J. K.