Separated themselves from Saul, to whom they had hitherto adhered; and from their brethren of their own tribe, who yet maintained Saul's cause; and from their families, and the places where they lived, from whom they went to David. Into the hold to the wilderness, or, into the hold of the wilderness, i.e. either to the cave of Adullam or Engedi; or rather to Ziklag, as appears from 1 Chronicles 12:1, which was in the wilderness of Judah, which is here called the hold, or the fortress, which name is also given to the city of David, 1 Chronicles 11:7, the Hebrew word being the same both here and there. Whose faces were like the faces of lions; who were full of courage, and by the majesty and fierceness of their countenances terrified their adversaries. As swift as the roes upon the mountains: as their very looks daunted their enemies, and put them to flight, so they could easily pursue and overtake and destroy them in their flight.
Related Commentaries of 1 Chronicles 12:8
1 Chronicles 12:8
8 And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of warb fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains;