Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
Flowing. (1.) A son of Jehaleleel (1 Chr. 4:16). (2.) A city in the south of Judah (Josh. 15:24), probably at the pass of Sufah. (3.) A city in the mountains of Judah (Josh. 15:55), identified with the uninhabited ruins of Tell ez-Zif, about 5 miles south-east of Hebron. Here David hid himself during his wanderings (1 Sam. 23:19; Ps. 54, title).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(battlement), the name of two towns in Judah.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
ZIPH (a flowing), a descendant of Judah. 1 Chr 4:16.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
ZIPH (a flowing), a name for two places. A city in the South of Judah. Josh 15:24. A town in the highlands of Judah, Josh 15:55; fortified by Rehoboam. 2 Chr 11:8. When pursued by Saul, David hid himself "in the wilderness of Ziph." 1 Sam 23:14-15, 1 Sam 23:24; 1 Sam 26:2. The site is Ziph ia a hill about 4 miles south-east of Hebron, on the road to En-gedi. It is a conspicuous mound, and shows at the present day no trace of buildings, but there
are large Jewish tombs and a quarry. On a low hill half a mile east are the remains of a town. As to the "wood of Ziph," 1 Sam 23:15, Conder asserts that in all probability it never had any real existence as a "wood," but was rather a town. "The existence," he says, "at any time, of a wood in this part of the country is geologically almost an impossibility. From Hebron to Beersheba not a single spring of any importance exists in the eastern
hills. . . . The country is emphatically a dry land. Looking down on the barren wastes which lie above the Dead Sea between Masada and En-gedi, there is no moisture capable of supporting vegetable growth. The cistus and the belan bushes grow among the ledges, but not a single tree exists in the whole country." The translation in Josephus is said to be "in the new place belonging to Ziph," and the Vatican and Alexandrine manuscripts support this.
One mile south of Tell Zif is Khirbet Khoreisa, an ancient locality of which Conder says: "We can have little hesitation in identifying with Choresh of Zif a village or hamlet belonging to the larger town of Tell Zif." Tristram, however (Land of Moab, pp. 19, 20), says: "How far the forest of Ziph extended it is not easy to say, but there are traces of it in an occasional tree, and there seems no reason, from the nature of the soil, why the woods
may not have stretched nearly to the barren, sandy marl which overlies the limestone for a few miles west of the Dead Sea."
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
this mouth or mouthful; falsehood