Joshua 10:17

in a cave "lurkinge in the spelunk," Wyclif; in one of the numerous limestone caves, with which the district abounds, though the article here, both in the Hebrew and the LXX., seems to intimate that it was a well-known cave, overshadowed probably by a grove of trees (comp. Joshua 10:26). Many such caves, large and dry, and often branching out into chambers, are found in the lime and chalk rocks of Palestine. Comp. (i) the cave in which Lot dwelt after the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 19:30); (ii) the cave at Rimmon (Judges 20:47), which could contain six hundred men in its spacious recess; (iii) David's cave of Adullam, where he concealed "his brethren, and all his father's house" (1 Samuel 22:1); (iv) the cave of Engedi, which Saul entered, and in the sides of which "David and his men remained" (1 Samuel 24:3); (v) Obadiah's cave, in which he concealed "an hundred prophets" (1 Kings 18:4). "The caves of Syria and Palestine are still used, either occasionally or permanently, as habitations.… The shepherds near Hebron leave their villages in the summer to dwell in caves and ruins, in order to be nearer to their flocks and fields. Almost all the habitations at Om-keis, Gadara, are caves." See Smith's Bible Dict. Art. Caves.