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 19:30).
The next we read of is the cave of Machpelah (q.v.), which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth (Gen 25:9, Gen 25:10). It was the burying-place of Sarah and of Abraham himself, also of Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob (Gen 49:31; Gen 50:13).
The cave of Makkedah, into which the five Amorite kings retired after their defeat by Joshua (Josh 10:16, Josh 10:27).
The cave of Adullam (q.v.), an immense natural cavern, where David hid himself from Saul (1 Sam 22:1, 1 Sam 22:2).
The cave of Engedi (q.v.), now called ‘Ain Jidy, i.e., the “Fountain of the Kid”, where David cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe (1 Sam 24:4). Here he also found a shelter for himself and his followers to the number of 600 (1 Sam 23:29; 1 Sam 24:1). “On all sides the country is full of caverns which might serve as lurking-places for David and his men, as they do for outlaws at the present day.”
The cave in which Obadiah hid the prophets (1 Kgs 18:4) was probably in the north, but it cannot be identified.
The cave of Elijah (1 Kgs 19:9), and the “cleft” of Moses on Horeb (Ex 33:22), cannot be determined.
In the time of Gideon the Israelites took refuge from the Midianites in dens and caves, such as abounded in the mountain regions of Manasseh (Judg 6:2).
Caves were frequently used as dwelling-places (Num 24:21; Song 2:14; Jer 49:16; Obad. Obad 1:3). “The excavations at Deir Dubban, on the south side of the wady leading to Santa Hanneh, are probably the dwellings of the Horites,” the ancient inhabitants of Idumea Proper. The pits or cavities in rocks were also sometimes used as prisons (Isa 24:22; Isa 51:14; Zech 9:11). Those which had niches in their sides were occupied as burying-places (Ezek 32:23; John 11:38).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
