Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 095

Ziph () was a town in the

Judean Mountains The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills (, or ,) are a mountain range in the West Bank and Israel where Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and several other biblical sites are located. The mountains reach a height of . The Judean Mountains can be div ...

(

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

15:55) south-east of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

. According to the biblical narrative in 1 Samuel 23,

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

hid himself from

Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...

here (

1 Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...

23:19; see also Psalm 54). Saul took his "chosen men of Israel" into the wilderness of Ziph in search of David. The name of Zif is found about four miles south of

, attached to a rounded hill of some 100 feet in height, which is called Tell Zif. Its name appears on a number of

LMLK seal The LMLK seal appears on the handles of several large storage jars from the Kingdom of Judah, where it was first issued during the reign of Hezekiah around 700 BCE. Seals bearing these four Hebrew letters have been discovered primarily on uneart ...

s along with those of

, Socoh and

MMST MMST (Hebrew: ''MMŠT'') is a word written in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, Paleo-Hebrew abjad script. It appears exclusively on LMLK seal inscriptions, seen in Archaeology of Israel, archaeological findings from the ancient Kingdom of Judah, whose mea ...

. It has been identified as the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village of Zif, Hebron.

Archaeology

Tell Ziph near Zif, Hebron has been identified as the site of ancient Ziph, with remains of a

Byzantine era The Byzantine calendar, also called the Roman calendar, the Creation Era of Constantinople or the Era of the World (, also or ; 'Roman year since the creation of the universe', abbreviated as ε.Κ.), was the calendar used by the Eastern Orth ...

church.14539 - ZIPH - Church
A Digital Corpus of Early Christian Churches and Monasteries in the Holy Land.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

. Retrieved 30 Jan 2025. Scholars debate the interpretation of the word ''Z(Y)F'' on

s. It may be a reference to an economic center established at the site south-east of

during the reign of King

Hezekiah Hezekiah (; ), or Ezekias (born , sole ruler ), was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Kingdom of Judah, Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "G ...

(circa 700 BC), or it may be a literal votive inscription meaning, "pinnacle", or "supply".Grena (2004), pp. 51, 360–2.

References

External links

ZYF LMLK seals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziph Hebrew Bible cities Books of Samuel

Archaeology

See also

References

External links