Ziklag

This article is about the biblical town. For the evangelical nonprofit, seeZiklag (nonprofit).

Ziklag(Hebrew:צִקְלַג,romanized:Ṣiqlaḡ) is thebiblicalname of a town in theNegevregion in the southwest of what was theKingdom of Judah.It was a provincial town in thePhilistinekingdom ofGathwhenAchishwas king.Its exact location has not been identified with any certainty.

Identification

At least 14 sites have been proposed as the location of Ziklag.At the end of the 19th century, bothHaluza(byWadiAsluj,south ofBeersheba)and Khirbet Zuheiliqah (northwest of Beersheba and south-southeast ofGaza city) had been suggested as possible locations.Conder and Kitchener identified Khirbet Zuheiliqah as the location on the basis ofZiklagbeing a corruption ofZahaliku,whence alsoZuheiliqah.

The more recently proposed identifications for Ziklag are:

• Albrecht Alt(1883–1956) proposedTel Halif/Tell el-Khuweilifeh,just beside kibbutzLahav,some 10 miles (16 km) northeast ofBeersheba.Due to this identification, for some time Lahav was officially named Tzekleg.
• Tell esh-Sharia(Arabic) orTel Sera (Hebrew).In June 2020,Moshe Garsieland Bath-Sheva Garsiel suggested that since the name of the Tell as well as the Wadi both mean "law" in Arabic, it commemorates David's law of sharing the spoils of war between the warriors and those left behind, which occurred in the vicinity (1 Sam 30: 22–26).
• Tel Zayit
• Khirbet a-Ra‘iin theShephelah,close to modern-dayKiryat Gat,proposed in 2019by excavating archaeologistYosef Garfinkeland contested mainly on grounds of biblical geography and lacking name continuity byAren MaeirandIsrael Finkelstein.Kyle Kelmer supported this identification in 2023.

In the Bible

Philistines' original base

TheBook of Genesis(inGenesis 10:14) refers toCasluhimas the origin of thePhilistines.Biblical scholars regard this as aneponymrather than a person, and it is thought possible that the name is a corruption ofHalusah;with the identification of Ziklag as Haluza, this suggests that Ziklag was the original base from which the Philistines captured the remainder of their territory.It has also been proposed that Ziklag subsequently became the capital of theCherethites.

Tribal allotment

In theBook of Joshua's lists of cities of the Israelites by tribe, Ziklag appears both as a town belonging to theTribe of Judah(Joshua 15:31) and as a town belonging to theTribe of Simeon(Joshua 19:5).Textual scholarsbelieve these lists were originally independent administrative documents, not necessarily dating from the same time, and hence reflecting changing tribal boundaries.

David receives Philistine Ziklag

1 Samuel 30claims that by the time ofDavid,the town was under the control ofPhilistines,but subsequently was given by their king –Achish– to David, who at that time was seemingly acting as avassalof the Philistines. David requested "a place in one of the country towns" and was awarded Ziklag, which he used as a base for raids against theGeshurites,the Girzites, and theAmalekites,which he conducted away from Achish's oversight.David's reports to Achish say that he had been conducting raids onSaul's lands in southernJudahand on theJerahmeelites.

Biblical scholarsargue that the town was probably on the eastern fringe of the Philistines' territory, and that it was natural for it to be annexed to Judah when David became king.Since textual scholars regard the compilation of the Book of Joshua as late, probably due to thedeuteronomist,it is possible that the tribal allocations in it date from after this annexation, rather than before.

David and the Amalekites

According to1 Samuel 30,while David was encamped with the Philistine army for an attack on theKingdom of Israel,Amalekitesraided Ziklag, burning the town and capturing its population without killing them (scholarsthink this capture refers toenslavement). But none of the archaeological sites that have been proposed to be Ziklag show any evidence of destruction during the era of David.

In the narrative, when David's men discover that their families have been captured, they become angry with David. David seeks the face of his God to determine whether to pursue the Amalekites. The Lord answers and says to pursue them for he would recover all. Initially, 600 men go in pursuit, but a third of them are too exhausted to go further than theHaBesor Stream.They find an abandoned and starving slave, formerly belonging to one of the Amalekites who had raided Ziklag, and after giving himfig cake,raisincake, and water, persuade him to lead them to the Amalekite raiders. The slave leads them to the captors' camp and finds them feasting and celebrating, due to the size of their spoil; David's forces engage in battle with them for a night and a day, and are victorious.

Textual scholars ascribe this narrative to themonarchial sourceof theBooks of Samuel;therivalsource, known as therepublican source(named this due to its negative presentation of David, Saul, and other kings), does not at first glance appear to contain a similar narrative. The same narrative position is occupied in therepublican sourceby the story ofNabal,who lived in the region south ofHebron(which includes the Negev).There are some similarities between the narratives, including David leading an army in revenge (for Nabal's unwillingness to give provisions to David), with 400 of the army going ahead and 200 staying behind,as well as David gainingAbigailas a wife (though in the Ziklag narrative heregainsher), as well as several provisions, and a jovial feast in the enemy camp (i.e., Nabal's property). There are also several differences, such as the victory and provisions being obtained by Abigail's peaceful actions rather than a heroic victory by David, the 200 that stayed behind doing so to protect thebaggagerather than due to exhaustion, the mainsecondary characterbeing the wife of the enemy (Nabal) rather than their former slave, David's forces being joined by damsels rather than rejoining their wives, and Nabal rather than the Amalekites being the enemy.

The Books of Samuel go on to mention that as a result, the people the Amalekites took were released, and the spoil that the Amalekites had taken, including livestock, and spoil from attacks elsewhere, were divided among David's men, including the third that had remained at theBesor.This ruling, that even those left behind would get a share, is a response by David to those who believed only the two-thirds of David's men who had battled with the Amalekites should get a reward. A similar ruling is given in thePriestly Code(Numbers 31:27) and inJoshua 22:8.Scholarsbelieve that these rulings derive from the decision in regard to the Amalekite spoil, rather than vice versa.

According to the text, once back at Ziklag, David sends portions of the spoil to the various community leaderswithin Judah;the text gives a list of the locations of the recipients, but they are all just within the Negev.

See also

• Days of Ziklag,1958 novel by Israeli author S. Yizhar

Bibliography

• Blakely, Jeffrey, "The Location of Medieval/Pre-Modern and Biblical Ziklag",Palestine Exploration Quarterly,139,1 (2007), 21–26.