Bible Meaning: Winding
Strong's Concordance #H6860
Ziklag was given to the tribe of Simeon (whose land was within Judah's) as an inheritance in the Promised Land (Joshua 19:1, 5). It was never conquered, however, by Israel and was controlled by the Philistines until the time of David.
Achish, king of the Philistine city of Gath, gave Ziklag to David as a place for him to live (1Samuel 27:5 - 6, 2Samuel 1:1). David soon made it a place where he could gather an army and make raids against the Amalekites.
The Amalekites respond, while David is absent from Ziklag, by conquering the city and burning it to the ground. They also take his family as hostage. When David discovers what has happened, he undertakes a daring raid on the Amalekites where he rescues the captives (1Samuel 30).
Some of the Jews who returned to Judah from Babylonian captivity, at the time of Nehemiah, settled in Ziglag (Nehemiah 11:28).
Important Verses
1Samuel 27:5 - 6
And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee?
Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day . . .
1Samuel 30:1, 13 - 14, 26
And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south . . .
And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick.
We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb: and we burned Ziklag with fire . . .
And when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord . . .
2Samuel 1:1 - 2
Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag;
It came even to pass on the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance.
1Chronicles 12:1 - 2
Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish: and they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war.
They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul's brethren of Benjamin.
Nehemiah 11:25, 28
And for the villages, with their fields, some of the children of Judah dwelt at Kirjatharba . . . And at Ziklag, and at Mekonah, and in the villages thereof . . .