Editing Adullam (section)

===Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Hebrew Bible===
[[File:Millstone in Adullam.jpg|thumb|Millstone in an oil press cave]]
The "Adullam" mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible]] is thought to be identical with ''Tell Sheikh Madkhur''.<ref name="Aharoni1979"/><ref name="Shaw1993">{{Harvnb|Shaw|1993|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3VZ5JDCedtoC&pg=PA45 45]}}</ref><ref name="AmitDavid">{{Harvnb|Amit|n.d.|pp=332–333}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|1879|p=[https://archive.org/details/tentworkinpalest02conduoft/page/156/mode/2up?view=theater 156]}}, who wrote: "The term ''Shephelah'' is used in the [[Talmud]] to mean the low hills of soft limestone, which, as already explained, form a distinct district between the plain and the watershed mountains. The name ''Sifla'', or ''Shephelah'', still exists in four or five places within the region round Beit Jibrîn, and we can therefore have no doubt as to the position of that district, in which Adullam is to be sought. [[Clermont-Ganneau|M. Clermont Ganneau]] was the fortunate explorer who first recovered the name, and I was delighted to find that Corporal Brophy had also collected it from half a dozen different people, without knowing that there was any special importance attaching to it. The title being thus recovered, without any leading question having been asked, I set out to examine the site, the position of which agrees almost exactly with the distance given by [[Jerome]], between [[Bayt Jibrin|Eleutheropolis]] and Adullam—ten Roman miles."</ref> The so-called "Biblical period", for time reference-sake, has been referred to by historians and archaeologists as the [[Late Bronze Age]] and the [[Iron Age]], meaning, the Late Canaanite and Israelite periods, respectively.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=1}}</ref> [[Anson Rainey|A.F. Rainey]] recognized Adullam (''Kh. esh-Sheikh Madhkûr'') as a Late Bronze Age site.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=3}}</ref>

By the [[Iron Age]],<ref>{{Harvnb|DiVietro|2022|p=133 (note 49)}}</ref> Adullam is referred to in the [[Hebrew Bible]] as being one of the royal cities of the Canaanites,<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|12:15|HE}}</ref> and is listed along with the cities [[Tel Yarmuth|Jarmuth]] and [[Socho]] as occupying a place in the region geographically known as the ''Shefelah'',<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|15:33-35|HE}}</ref> or what is a place of transition between the mountainous region and the coastal plains.

It was here that Judah, the son of [[Jacob]] (Israel), came when he left his father and brothers in [[Migdal Eder (biblical location)|Migdal Eder]]. Judah befriended a certain Hirah, an Adullamite.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|38:1|HE}}</ref> In Adullam, Judah met his first wife (unnamed in the [[Book of Genesis]]), the daughter of [[Shuah]].

During the period of the [[Book of Joshua#Narrative|Israelite conquest]] of the land of Canaan, Adullam was one of many city-states with independent and sovereign kings.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ben-Yosef|n.d.|p=31}}</ref> According to the same biblical source, the king of Adullam was slain by [[Joshua]] and the [[Israelites]] during their conquest of the land.<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|12:7-15|HE}}</ref> The immediate lands were, by what was thought to be a "divine act" of casting lots, given as a tribal inheritance to the progeny of Judah.<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|14:1-2|HE}}; {{bibleverse|Joshua|15:1-35|HE}}</ref>

More than 400 years later, the scene of David's victory over [[Goliath]] in the [[Elah valley]] was within a short distance from Adullam, at that time a frontier village.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|17:2|HE}}</ref> Although David was elevated and allowed to sit in King Saul's presence, he soon fell into disrepute with the king and was forced to flee. 
[[File:Adullam,_the_hilltop_ruin.jpg|thumb|right|Ruin of Adullam. ''Wely Madkour'']]
David sought refuge in Adullam after being expelled from the city of [[Gath (city)|Gath]] by King [[Achish]]. The [[1 Samuel|Book of Samuel]] refers to the Cave of Adullam where he found protection while living as a refugee from King Saul. Certain caves, [[grotto]]s and [[sepulchres]] are still to be seen on the hilltop, as well as on its northern and eastern slopes. It was there that "every one that was in distress gathered together, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented."<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|22:2|HE}}</ref> There, David thirsted for the well-waters of his native Beth-lehem, then occupied by a Philistine garrison. A party of David's mighty-men of valor went and fetched him water from that place, but, when they returned, David refused to drink it.<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Samuel|23:13-17|HE}}</ref>

In the 10th-century BCE, Adullam was thought to have strategic importance, prompting King David's grandson, [[Rehoboam]] (c. 931–913 BCE), to fortify the town, among others, against [[Ancient Egypt]].<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref name="Clermont-Ganneau1875"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Beyer|1931|pp=115, 129–134}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|11:7|HE}}</ref> According to Israeli historian [[:he:נדב נאמן|N.]]{{nbsp}}[[:he:נדב נאמן|Naʾaman]], this was not a fortress in the real sense, but only a town inhabited by a civilian population, although it functioned as an administrative military center in which a garrison was stationed and food and armor stored.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naʾaman|1986|p=6}}</ref>