Bible Strands
1 Samuel 22:2
And all who were distressed or indebted or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David has fled to the cave of Adullam after leaving Gath, and his brothers and father’s household have just joined him there.
The words — The Hebrew verb יִתְקַבְּצוּ (yitkabbeṣû) translates literally to "they gathered together," describing men in מָצוֹק (māṣōq, "distress") who assembled around him.
The thread — This pattern of the marginalized converging on a central figure appears in Matthew 11:28 and Psalm 72:12.
Why it lands — The passage records the factual recruitment of four hundred disaffected men rather than issuing a theological promise, requiring the reader to observe how leadership emerges from the aggregation of the aggrieved.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.
Cross-references
- Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Psalms 72:12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.
- 1 Samuel 1:10 In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.
- 1 Samuel 25:13 And David said to his men, “Strap on your swords!” So David and all his men strapped on their swords, and about four hundred men followed David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
- 1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
- 1 Samuel 30:22 but all the wicked and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered, except for each man’s wife and children. They may take them and go.”
- 1 Samuel 25:15 Yet these men were very good to us. When we were in the field, we were not harassed, and nothing of ours went missing the whole time we lived among them.
- Judges 11:3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.
- 1 Samuel 9:16 “At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you are to anoint him ruler over My people Israel; he will save them from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.”
- 1 Samuel 23:13 Then David and his men, about six hundred strong, set out and departed from Keilah, moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he declined to go forth.