For at that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God.
The host of God - i:e., great and powerful army. 'Of all the Hebrew tribes, there were no men better fitted than these by their native training to form the nucleus of David's army. They covered the whole ground described as the land of the patriarchs. Hebron and Ziklag, lying in the north and south, and Adullam among the mountains of Judah on the west, are chiefly marked as three of the boundaries of the territory covered by them, and we recognize the fourth in Sebbeh, the ancient Masada, on the west of the Dead Sea. That this was "the hold" mentioned, 1 Chronicles 12:8: cf. 1 Samuel 20:4-5, may be inferred from the identity of name; and to the same effect is the testimony of Josephus ('Jewish Wars,' b. 4:, ch. 7:) when he speaks of Masada as a fortress erected by our ancient kings as a place of safe deposit for their wealth during war, and as a place of safety for their persons' (Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' p. 133).