Adullam, cave of

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Adullam, cave of in the Bible, the cave in the hills of Judah in which David hid from Saul (1 Samuel 22:10), and where his supporters gathered to him. The name Adullamites was given to a group of Liberal rebels in the House of Commons in 1866 who were opposed to the Reform Bill; the term comes from a speech by the Liberal politician John Bright (1811–89), saying that their leader Robert Lowe had ‘retired into what may be called his political Cave of Adullam.’