Ziklag in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

A city in southern Judah, associated with Chesil and Hormah (Joshua 15:31; Joshua 19:5; 1 Chronicles 4:30). 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 (1 Samuel 27:8-9; 1 Samuel 30:14; 1 Samuel 30:26), 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 (1 Chronicles 12:1-20), and heard of Saul's death (2 Samuel 1:1; 2 Samuel 4:10); thence he went to Hebron (2 Samuel 2:1). 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 1 Samuel 30:11 is "the field (sadeh) of the Philistines"; sadeh is applied to the country of Amalek (Genesis 14:7). Reoccupied after the Babylonian captivity by the men of Judah (Nehemiah 11:28).