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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Ziklag
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A city in southern Judah, associated with Chesil and Hormah (; ; ). Lieut. Conder identifies it with Zehleika or Khirbet Zuheilikah in the middle of the plain N. of Beersheba, 200 miles square, just where the narrative concerning David would lead us to look for it. The ruins are on three small hills, forming an equilateral triangle, almost half a mile apart; among the ruins are several cisterns. Simeon possessed it. Assigned by Achish king of Gath to David, for the Philistines had taken it.
Thence David went up against the Geshurites, Gezrites, and Amalekites (-9; ; ), for these tribes occupied the plateau overhanging the Philistine plain to the W. and wady Murreh to the S. He resided there a year and four months; it was there he received daily new accessions of forces (-20), and heard of Saul's death (; ); thence he went to Hebron (). Thus Ziklag lay at the confines of Philistia, Judah, and Amalek. Its position probably was in the open country, pastoral and amble, reached from the S. after passing out of wady er Ruheibeh. The term used in is "the field (sadeh) of the Philistines"; sadeh is applied to the country of Amalek (). Reoccupied after the Babylonian captivity by the men of Judah ().