Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 22

The cave Adullam. —The great valley of Elah forms the highway from Philistia to Hebron. Especially in one of the tributary valleys or ravines of the Elah valley, there are many natural caves—some of great extent, roomy, and dry—which are still used by the shepherds as dwelling-places and as refuges for their flocks and herds. David chose one of these natural strongholds as the temporary home for himself and his followers. The traveller sees that there was ample room for the 400 refugees who gathered under David’s skilled leadership. Stanley even speaks of this Adullam Cavern as “a subterranean palace, with vast columnar halls and arched chambers.”

The name Adullam was probably given to the largest of these great caverns from its proximity to the old royal Canaanite city of Adullam (Joshua 15:35), the ruins of which, on a rounded hill to the south of the cave, are still visible.

His brothers and all his father’s house. —They, of course, soon felt the weight of Saul’s anger against the prominent hero of their race, and dreading the fate that often overwhelms whole families for the faults of one of their more distinguished members, fled from their homes, and joined David and his armed force of outlaws.

Every one that was in distress.—Ewald writes on this statement: "The situation of the country, which was becoming more and more melancholy under Saul, ... drove men to seek a leader from whom they might hope for better things for the future. ... David did not send away these refugees, many of them distinguished and prominent Israelites, but organised them into a military force.

He foresaw that while commanding such a company as this, he might, without injuring his king and former benefactor, be of the very greatest use to the people, and protect the southern frontiers of the kingdom—sadly exposed in these later years of King Saul—from the plundering incursions of the neighbouring nomadic tribes. This state of things, with a few interruptions, really came to pass, and David won great repute and popularity among the protected districts during these years when he was a wanderer and an outlaw—a popularity which in after years stood him in good stead."

These persons "in distress" were especially those who were persecuted by Saul and his men for their attachment to David. The scriptural accounts of the refugees who took shelter in David’s armed camp, of course, cover a considerable period, for they did not all flock to his standard at once.

Some went to him in the first days of his exile, others after the massacre at the sanctuary at Nob, and still others later; thus, 400 gradually gathered around him. Soon after, these numbers swelled to 600. These were probably only the chosen men-at-arms of the little force, which was, no doubt, numerically far greater.

And every one that was in debt.—Throughout the whole long story of Israel, this unhappy love of greed and gain has been a characteristic feature of the chosen race, always a prominent and ugly sin. In the Mosaic Law, most stringent regulations were laid down to correct and mitigate this ruling passion of avarice among the Jews (See passages such as Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:36; Deuteronomy 23:19).

The poor, improvident, or perhaps unfortunate, debtor was protected by wise laws against the greedy, avaricious spirit of his merciless creditor. These beneficent regulations of the great lawgiver had, under the capricious and faulty rule of King Saul, of course, fallen into abeyance, and a terrible amount of misery, no doubt, was the consequence.

In the Divine record, sad scenes (see 2 Kings 4:1–7), exemplifying this pitiless spirit, are incidentally related; but they are so woven into the mosaic of the history as to show us they were, alas, no uncommon occurrence in the daily life of the people.

In Proverbs, for instance, we find some conspicuous examples. The chronicles of the Middle Ages in all countries teem with similar stories about the chosen people.

Our own great dramatist, some three centuries ago, evidently without attempt at exaggeration, selected the avaricious, grasping Jew as the central figure of one of his most famous dramas. In our own time, the same spirit, as is too well known, is still prevalent and constitutes the bitterest reproach that the many enemies of this unique, deathless race can level against a people evidently walled in by Divine protection and a changeless, eternal love.

And he became a captain over them.—Evidently, these outlaws of Adullam and the stronghold of Moab, of Hareth and Keilah, of Ziph and Engedi, were no undisciplined band. David quickly organised the refugees, among whom, gradually, many a man of distinction and proven valour and ability was included.

To complete the picture of this First Book of Samuel, we must synthesize the scattered accounts of this same period that appear in the Second Book of Samuel and in the Books of Kings and Chronicles (See Excursus I. at the end of this Book).

Mizpeh.—This particular Mizpeh is mentioned nowhere else. The word means a watch tower; it was probably some mountain fortress in Moab. It has been suggested that it was the same as Zophim, a word of the same root as Mizpeh . David evidently sought hospitality among his kin in Moab. Jesse, his father, was the grandson of Ruth the Moabitess. The distance from the south of Judah where the fugitives were wandering was not great.

Till I know what God will do for me.—This memory of David’s words to the King of Moab shows that the old trust and love, which in his first moments of care and sorrow had failed him, had returned to the son of Jesse. It is interesting to note that David, when addressing the Moabite sovereign, speaks of “God” (Elohim), not of Jehovah.

This was probably out of deep reverence; an idolater had nothing to do with the awe-inspiring name by which the Eternal was known to His covenant people—a Name whose pronunciation, as originally uttered, has now passed from the earth. We read the mystic four letters, but no one, Jew or Gentile, can pronounce the Name of Names. The “Name,” however, was not unknown in Moab, for the mystic letters that compose it occur in the inscription of Mesha, dating about 150 years from the days of David’s exile.

While that David was in the hold. —This “hold” is, of course, identical with the “hold” of 1 Samuel 22:5, from which Gad the prophet directs David to depart, and to return into the land of Judah. It was, most likely, in the Land of Moab.

The prophet Gad. From this time onward throughout the life and reign of David, Gad the prophet evidently occupied a marked place. He is mentioned as the king’s seer in 2 Samuel 24:11; and in 1 Chronicles 29:29 he appears as the compiler of the acts of David, along with Samuel and Nathan. In 2 Chronicles 29:25, he is mentioned with his brother prophet Nathan again, as the man who had drawn up the plan of the great Temple services, which for eighteen centuries have been the model for the countless Christian Liturgies in all the Churches.

It was Gad also who, well into the golden days of the exile’s rule, dared to reprove the mighty king for his deed of numbering the people—an act that involved a great sin, or the design of a great sin, not recorded for us—and who brought as a message from the Highest the terrible choice of three evils (2 Samuel 24:11 and following verses). As he appears in the last years of the great king’s life, and apparently survived his master and friend, Gad must have been still young, or in any case in the prime of life, when he joined the fugitive and his outlawed band. He had, therefore, very likely been a fellow student and friend of David in the Naioth of Samuel by Ramah.

It seems hardly a baseless conjecture that sees in Gad a direct messenger from the old prophet Samuel to his loved pupil David—whom Samuel well knew to be “the anointed of the Lord.” As has been previously observed, among the many who were educated and brought up in the Schools of the Prophets as historians, preachers, musicians, and teachers, very few seem to have received the Divine influence (the Spirit’s “afflatus”) needed to constitute a prophet in the true, high sense of that solemn word as we now understand it. Gad, however, appears to have been one of these rarely favoured few, and the presence of such a one in this outlaw camp of David must have been of great advantage to the captain.

Abide not. The wise advice of the prophet, suggested by a Divine influence, told David not to estrange himself from his own country and people by remaining in a foreign land, but to return with his followers to the wilder districts of Judah. There was work for him and his followers to do in that distracted, harassed land.

The forest of Hareth. The Septuagint and Josephus here read “the city of Hareth.” Lieutenant Conder, whose recent investigations have thrown so much light upon the geography of the Promised Land, can find no trace of forest on the edge of the mountain chain of Hebron, where Kharas now stands, and he therefore believes the Septuagint text is the true one. Dean Payne Smith, however, considers that “the thickets,” which still grow here abundantly, are what the Hebrew word yar, here translated “forest,” signifies.