At the time of ¹  the harvest three ²  of the thirty leaders went down to ³  David at the cave of Adullam. A band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.

He went into a cave there and spent the night. All of a sudden the Lord spoke to him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. All of a sudden ¹  a voice asked him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

Three of the thirty leaders went down to David at the rocky cliff at the cave of Adullam, while a Philistine force was camped in the Valley of Rephaim.

Afterward David got up and went out of the cave. He called out after Saul, “My lord, O king!” When Saul looked behind him, David kneeled down and bowed with his face to the ground.

A well-written song ²  by David, when he was in the cave; ³  a prayer. To the Lord I cry out; ⁴  to the Lord I plead for mercy. ⁵ 

When Jezebel was killing ¹  the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah took one hundred prophets and hid them in two caves in two groups of fifty. He also brought them food and water.)

So Abraham secured ¹  Ephron’s field in Machpelah, next to Mamre, including the field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field and all around its border,

Today your own eyes see how the Lord delivered you – this very day – into my hands in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I had pity ¹  on you and said, ‘I will not extend my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s chosen one.’ ² 

He struck them down and defeated them. ¹  Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.

Certainly my master is aware of what I did ¹  when Jezebel was killing the Lord’s prophets. I hid one hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves in two groups of fifty and I brought them food and water.

For the music director; according to the al-tashcheth style; ²  a prayer ³  of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave. ⁴  Have mercy on me, O God! Have mercy on me! For in you I have taken shelter. ⁵  In the shadow of your wings ⁶  I take shelter until trouble passes.

Leave your towns, you inhabitants of Moab. Go and live in the cliffs. Be like a dove that makes its nest high on the sides of a ravine. ¹ 

Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.”

when they crouch in their dens, when they wait in ambush in the thicket?

where he is now waiting ¹  until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. ² 

David was in the stronghold at the time, while a Philistine garrison was in Bethlehem. ¹ 

All the leaders and people said to him, “Do not give in or agree to his demands.” ¹ 

David was in the stronghold at the time, while a Philistine garrison was in Bethlehem. ¹ 

Blessings ¹  are on the head of the righteous, but the speech ²  of the wicked conceals ³  violence. ⁴