Insurgents

The umbrella collects a single episode: the irregular force that gathered to David in flight from Saul. The men are not soldiers under commission; they are the distressed, the indebted, and the embittered, organizing themselves around a fugitive captain.

The Cave of Adullam

The location is named first. "David therefore departed from there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam: and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him" (1 Sam 22:1). The kindred join the fugitive — the family of the anointed comes out to the cave he has chosen.

Four Hundred Men

The composition of the force is given by category, not by tribe or trade: "And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was in bitterness of soul, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men" (1 Sam 22:2). Three classes of grievance are named — present hardship, financial obligation, and inward bitterness — and David is given as their captain. The number is rounded: about four hundred. The picture is of a recognizable kind of force — those who have nothing to lose, mustered around a leader who is himself in flight.