Reference: Ziph (1)
Fausets
1. In southern Judah (negeb) (Jos 15:24). In the Imperial Dictionary the name is connected with Sufah, and the site is supposed to be at the ascent of Akrabbim.
2. A town in the hill country of Judah (Jos 15:55); mentioned between Carmel and Juttah. David took refuge in a wood, then in a wilderness (midbar, an unenclosed pasture ground) adjoining (1Sa 23:14-24; 26:2). On both occasions the Ziphites discovered him to Saul. The last interview of David and Jonathan was in the wood here. A round hill, 100 ft. high, about three miles S. of Hebron, is still called Tell Zif. Three miles further S. is Kurmul (Carmel), and between them to the W. of the road is Yutta (Juttah). Rehoboam fortified Ziph (2Ch 11:8), probably Tell Ziph.
Half a mile off eastward are ruins at the head of two small wadies running off toward the Dead Sea. Lieut. Conder disputes the existence of a wood at Ziph; there are no springs of any size, and the soil is chalky. Septuagint and Josephus substitute "the new place" for "the wood of Ziph." The village Khirbet Khoreisa, one mile S. of Ziph, answers to "the wood of Ziph" as KJV translates; the difference between the Hebrew choresh and the Septuagint reading is a difference merely of points; the choresh of Ziph was a village belonging to the larger town at Tell Ziph.