town or village

Adullam

• Today Khirbet esh Sheikh Madhkur
• Most likely location

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History

Adullam lay in the Shephelah above the southern end of the Valley of Elah, about 11 km northeast of Beth Guvrin. Its upper town is usually placed at Khirbet esh-Sheikh Madhkur, a hilltop with rock-cut cisterns and caves, and the old name is thought to survive in the ruin of 'Id el-Miyeh at its foot, which Charles Clermont-Ganneau took for Adullam in the 1870s. No inscription has yet confirmed the identification. The site has been surveyed but hardly excavated; pottery from the surface shows settlement in the Bronze and Iron Ages.

In Genesis Judah went down from his brethren and "turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah". Joshua's list of conquered kings names a king of Adullam, and the town is counted among the cities of the lowland of Judah. Fleeing from Achish of Gath, David "escaped to the cave Adullam"; there his family joined him, and "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented" gathered to him, about four hundred men. Later three of his mighty men came to him at the cave of Adullam; when he longed for water from the well of Bethlehem, they broke through the host of the Philistines to bring it, and he poured it out unto the LORD.

Rehoboam fortified Adullam with Lachish, Azekah and other towns of Judah. In the late eighth century BC Micah, naming the towns of the lowland, says "he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel". After the exile men of Judah lived again at Adullam and its villages, as Nehemiah records.

In the time of the Maccabees, after defeating Gorgias, the governor of Idumea, Judas Maccabeus gathered his army and came into the city of Odollam, where his men purified themselves and kept the sabbath. Josephus retells David's stay in the cave and lists Adullam among Rehoboam's cities. In the early fourth century AD Eusebius knew it as a very large village ten miles east of Eleutheropolis.

Scripture: Gen 38:1; Josh 12:15; Josh 15:35; 1 Sam 21:10; 1 Sam 22:1–2; 2 Sam 23:13–17; 2 Chr 11:5–10; Mic 1:15; Neh 11:30

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (9)

Gen 38:1

And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

Josh 12:15

The king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;

Josh 15:35

Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah,

1 Sam 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.

2 Sam 23:13

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 pitched in the valley of Rephaim.

1 Chr 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 valley of Rephaim.

2 Chr 11:7

And Beth-zur, and Shoco, and Adullam,

Neh 11:30

Zanoah, Adullam, and in their villages, at Lachish, and the fields thereof, at Azekah, and in the villages thereof. And they dwelt from Beer-sheba unto the valley of Hinnom.

Mic 1:15

Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

King James Version

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