1 Samuel 22:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 22:1
David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.
a cavern (as dark) · noun, common feminine singular construct
Adullam
עֲדֻלָּ֑ם'a.du.Lam
H5725
Adullam · proper noun, a place name
brethren
אֶחָיו֙'e.Chav
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
father’s
אָבִ֔יו'a.Viv
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
house
בֵּ֣יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
heard
וַיִּשְׁמְע֤וּvai.yish.me.'U
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
down
וַיֵּרְד֥וּvai.ye.re.Du
H3381
to descend (literally · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 57:1-11 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until…
1 Chronicles 11:15 Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines encamped in the v…
Psalms 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Psalms 142:1-7 I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
Joshua 12:15 The king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;
Hebrews 11:38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
1 Samuel 21:10-15 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
2 Samuel 23:13-14 And three of the thirty chief went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam: and the troop of the Philistines pi…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 22:1-5
Here, I. David shelters himself in the cave of Adullam, Sa1 22:1. Whether it was a natural or artificial fastness does not appear; it is probable that the access to it was so difficult that David thought himself able, with Goliath's sword, to keep it against all the forces of Saul, and therefore buried himself alive in it, while he was waiting to see (and he says here, Sa1 22:3) what God would do with him. The promise of the kingdom implied a promise of preservation to it, and yet David used proper means for his own safety, otherwise he would have tempted God. He did not do any thing that aimed to destroy Saul, but only to secure himself. He that might have done great service to his country…
The cave Adullam - This was in the tribe of Judah, and, according to Eusebius and Jerome, ten miles eastward of what they call Eleutheropolis.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 22:1
David therefore departed from thence,.... From Gath, being driven by Achish from his court, and let go by his servants, and glad he was of the deliverance:
and escaped to the cave Adullam; which was no doubt near to a city of the same name in the tribe of Judah, of which See Gill on Joshua 15:35; this being a strong place, and in his own tribe, he might hope to be in greater safety; here he penned his hundred forty second psalm, see Psalm 142:1,
and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it; that he was come thither:
they went down thither to him; to visit and comfort him, counsel and assist him all they could; and chiefly to secure themselves from the rage and malice of Saul,…
Having been driven away by Achish, the Philistian king at Gath, David took refuge in the cave Adullam, where his family joined him. The cave Adullam is not to be sought for in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, as some have inferred from Sa2 23:13-14, but near the town Adullam, which is classed in Jos 15:35 among the towns in the lowlands of Judah, and at the foot of the mountains; though it has not yet been traced with any certainty, as the caves of Deir Dubban, of which Van de Velde speaks, are not the only large caves on the western slope of the mountains of Judah. When his brethren and his father's house, i.e., the rest of his family, heard of his being there, they came down to him, evident…
The Church Fathers
(1 Samuel 22:1) Therefore David departed thence and fled to the cave of Adullam. Adullam is interpreted as "their testimony"; and the Lord, fleeing the hearts of the proud, enters as a welcome inhabitant into the spirits of the humble who possess nothing of earthly height or glory. Their very humility is a faithful testimony that they are worthy to receive Christ. Or certainly, it is the testimony of those from whom, in their pride, God flees; they are called humble, whereby their testimony convinces that they could also have pleased God and received Him if they had wished.
When his brothers heard this, they went down, etc. With Christ remaining among the humble, all the elect descend to Him by humbling themselves; or men, who are His brothers, because He Himself became man; or angels, who are most particularly the house of His Father and the place of His glory's dwelling. All those also come who, depressed by the consciousness of their sins, desire to be cleansed with the bitter tears of repentance, and to be freed from alien air, that is, the debt of sin which the devil has imposed; hoping, under the leadership and guidance of Christ, to be advanced to the joys of the kingdom.
For the just engage in many struggles. Does an athlete contend only once? How often, after he has won many victor's crowns, is he overcome in another contest! How often it happens that one who has frequently gained the victory sometimes hesitates and is held fast in uncertainty! And it frequently comes to pass that a brave man is contending with brave men and greater struggles arise, where proofs of strength are greater. Thus, when David sought to flee to avoid the adversary, he also did not find his wings. He was driven here and there in an uncertain struggle.… But David is still in the cave—that is, in the flesh—in the cavern of his body, as it were, as he fights with King Saul, the son of hardness, and with the power of that spiritual prince who is not visible but is comprehensible.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abiathar — Father of abundance, or my father excels, the son of Ahimelech the high priest. He was the tenth high priest, and the fourth in descent from Eli. When his father was slain with the priests of Nob, he…
Adullam — One of the royal cities of the Canaanites, now ‘Aid-el-ma (Josh. 12:15; 15:35). It stood on the old Roman road in the valley of Elah (q.v.), which was the scene of David’s memorable victory over…
Cave — There are numerous natural caves among the limestone rocks of Syria, many of which have been artificially enlarged for various purposes. The first notice of a cave occurs in the history of Lot (Gen.…
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Judah, Tribe of — Judah and his three surviving sons went down with Jacob into Egypt (Gen. 46:12; Ex. 1:2). At the time of the Exodus, when we meet with the family of Judah again, they have increased to the number of…
Adullam · .David takes refuge in — .David takes refuge in
Cave · Of Adullam — Of Adullam
Caves · Often capacious — Often capacious
Insurgents · Army of, David’s — Army of, David’s
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Saul’s character becomes evident here. Unable to exact revenge on David himself, Saul slaughtered those he believed to be guilty of giving aid and comfort to David.
22:1 Adullam was some sixteen miles southwest of Jerusalem, near Philistine territory. • Had David’s brothers and all his other relatives stayed in Bethlehem, they would have been vulnerable to Saul’s revenge.
