And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.
He came to the sheep-cotes by the way, where was a cave. On all sides, as Dr. Robinson states, the country is full of caverns, which might then serve as lurking-places for David and his men, as they do for outlaws at the present day. They are unchanged since the days of the first king of Israel, when, entering into one of them, Saul lay down to rest in the heat of the day; there are the same side-vaults too, where David and his men concealed, when, accustomed to the obscurity of the cavern, they saw Saul enter, while, blinded by the glare of light outside, he saw nothing of him whom he so bitterly persecuted. 'The largest cave,' says Lieutenant Lynch, of the American Exploration of the Dead Sea. 'that we entered at En-gedi could contain thirty men, and has a long, low, and narrow gallery running from one side, which would be invisible when the sun does not shine through the entrance.'