XXXVI THE CAVE OF ADULLAM

HEN David fled for his life from the displeasure of King Saul, he became an outlaw, like Robin Hood.

On the way he stopped at a village called Nob, where the Ark of God was kept. And he asked the priest for bread and a sword. And the priest said, “There is no bread here except that which is on the holy table.”

And David said, “Let me have that.” So the priest gave him five loaves. And the priest said, “There is no sword here except that with which you cut off the giant’s head. It is wrapped up in a cloth.”

And David said, “I am on the king’s business, and in great haste, and I have no sword. There is none like that; give it to me.” So the priest gave him the sword. But a man named Doeg, the king’s chief herdsman, saw what was done, and told the king.

Then David went to Bethlehem to his father’s farm and told the bad news of the anger of the king. “He has threatened to kill me. Indeed, he has already tried twice to kill me, once with his own hand. You and mother must go at once to a place of safety. Come, let me take you to our cousins in Moab, the family of my great-grandmother Ruth.” So over they went, across the Jordan, and put themselves under the protection of the king of Moab.

As for David, he found a place of refuge in the Cave of Adullam. And there men gathered about him.

The first to come was Abiathar. He had been a priest at Nob, and he told David what had happened. Doeg had gone straight to Saul. “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob,” he said, “and the chief priest gave him bread from the holy table and the giant’s sword.” And Saul sent for the chief priest, and the priest said, “Here am I.”

And Saul frowned upon him, and said, “Why have you conspired against me with the son of Jesse, and have given him a sword to slay me?”

And the chief priest answered, “Who is so faithful among all your servants as David, your son-in-law, and honorable in your house? I knew nothing of any trouble between you and him.”

Then the king’s old madness came upon him, and he called for men to kill not only the chief priest, but all the other priests. And at first, nobody would do it. Not a man would lift his sword to strike those unarmed, innocent men. Finally, Doeg did it. He fell upon them with such fury that only one escaped. Abiathar escaped, and became one of David’s band.

And others came, till there were six hundred men. Some had chosen the outlaw life because they were in distress, some because they were in debt, some because they were discontented and were weary of peace and quiet and desirous of adventures. A wild and hardy life they had, among the hills, under the stars, fighting the Philistines, chasing the Amalekites, defending shepherds from the attacks of brigands, and making rich sheepmasters pay for their protection.

There was Abishai, David’s nephew. One day David was fighting the Philistines, and the army of the enemy lay about Bethlehem. And in the midst of the battle, in the dust and heat, David was very thirsty; and he looked across the valley over the heads of the struggling soldiers, and there in the distance were the green trees of his native village. And David said, “Oh, that one would give me drink of the waters of the well of Bethlehem, that is by the gate.” And Abishai and two others who stood by and heard these words started straight for Bethlehem. Running and hiding and fighting, they made their way through the Philistine army, and filled a cup with water and brought it back and gave it to David. And David would not drink it. He said it was too sacred to drink, gained as it was by the peril of men’s lives. He poured it solemnly upon the ground. That was Abishai’s adventure.

There was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. One time, he went down into a pit on a snowy day and single-handed fought a lion and killed him. Another time he was attacked by an Egyptian, eight feet high, whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. Benaiah had only a stick in his hand when the Egyptian fell upon him; but he plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear. That is the sort of man Benaiah was.

There was Jonathan, another of David’s nephews. He had a fight with a Philistine, on each of whose hands were six fingers, and on each of his feet six toes, and the man was big in proportion. But he was not big enough to vanquish Jonathan.

There were eleven men of God, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and their feet as swift as the wild roes on the mountains. Once in the spring, when the water of the Jordan was in full flood, brimming from bank to bank, they swam across and put to flight, some east and some west, the people who lived on the other side.

David also had his share of danger. Once he ventured into a Philistine city and entered the service of the Philistine king. And the Philistines found out who he was. “This,” they said, “is the man who killed our champion the giant.” And they proposed to make an end of him. And David pretended to be crazy. He opened his mouth so that his spittle fell down upon his beard; he scrabbled on the doors of the gate; so that the king said, “See, the fellow is mad.” Thus he escaped.

In such adventures David and his men of Adullam passed their days.