1 Samuel 23:19-28

The treachery of the Ziphites

19. Then came up the Ziphites The title of Psalms 54. refers it to this occasion, or that recorded in 1 Samuel 26:1, and the contents agree with the situation. See especially 1 Samuel 23:3.

On the relation between this narrative and that in ch. 26. see Note VII. p. 243.

in the hill of Hachilah, &c] This hill was situated on the south of, or according to 1 Samuel 26:3, "in front of" or "facing" the Waste. Jeshimonis not a proper name, but means the Waste, and denotes the district on which the plateau of Ziph looks down, "with white peaks and cones of chalk and deep narrow watercourses, terminated by the great pointed cliff of Ziz above Engedi, and by the precipices over the Dead Sea, two thousand feet high." Hachilah is not identified with any certainty. Lieut. Conder proposes to recognise it in the long ridge of El Kôlah, running out of the Ziph plateau eastwards. From Tell Zîfthe Ziphites could observe the movements of David's men over this region.