Hachilah was a hill in the Wilderness of Ziph, where David hid from Saul and where the Ziphites revealed David's location to Saul (1Sa.23.19; 26:1, 3).
Also known as Hakilah
Hachilah was a hill located in the Wilderness of Ziph, in the region of Judah. It is mentioned in the context of David's flight from King Saul. The Ziphites, who inhabited the area, went to Saul at Gibeah and informed him that David was hiding in the strongholds at Hachilah (1Sa.23.19). Saul sought David in the Wilderness of Ziph and camped at Hachilah (1Sa.26.1, 3). David learned of Saul's presence and sent out spies to confirm his location. In a daring move, David and Abishai sneaked into Saul's camp at night and took Saul's spear and water jug, demonstrating that he could have killed Saul but chose to spare his life (1Sa.26.4-12). The hill of Hachilah served as a strategic hideout for David, providing him with a vantage point to monitor Saul's movements and evade capture. The exact location of Hachilah is not specified in the Bible, but it is described as being near the Wilderness of Ziph, which was located in the eastern part of the Judean wilderness.
Approximate location: 31.467, 35.217 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
The darksome hill, one of the peaks of the long ridge of el-Kolah, running out of the Ziph plateau, “on the south of Jeshimon” (i.e., of the “waste”), the district to which one looks down from the plateau of Ziph (1 Sam. 23:19). After his reconciliation with Saul at Engedi (24:1-8), David returned to Hachilah, where he had fixed his quarters. The Ziphites treacherously informed Saul of this, and he immediately (26:1-4) renewed his pursuit of David, and “pitched in the hill of Hachilah.” David and his nephew Abishai stole at night into the midst of Saul’s camp, when they were all asleep, and noiselessly removed the royal spear and the cruse from the side of the king, and then, crossing the intervening valley to the height on the other side, David cried to the people, and thus awoke the sleepers. He then addressed Saul, who recognized his voice, and expostulated with him. Saul professed to be penitent; but David could not put confidence in him, and he now sought refuge at Ziklag. David and Saul never afterwards met. (1 Sam. 26:13-25).
HACH'ILAH, HILL OF (the darksome hill), a place in Judah near Ziph, and where David with his 600 followers hid. 1 Sam 23:19; comp. 1 Sam 23:14-15, 1 Sam 23:18; 1 Sam 26:3. Conder was inclined to locate it at the ruins now called Yekin: "The hill Yekin is a bold promontory standing just at the edge of the plateau. It looks over the whole desert; the cliffs of En-gedi, the Dead Sea, and the heights of Moab are in full view. Just beneath the crest of the hill is a hollow, with another knoll beyond. It is the head of a great valley, which soon becomes precipitous, running down into the desert. In this hollow are a spring and a cave. This I imagine is what is meant by the 'trench.' 1 Sam 26:5. David is said to have crossed over to the other side, and we may imagine him standing on one or other of the hill-tops and looking down on the king and his sleeping party in the hollow."
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
3 verses in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H2444
Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon?
Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hachilah, opposite Jeshimon?”
Saul camped beside the road at the hill of Hachilah opposite Jeshimon, but David was living in the wilderness. When he realized that Saul had followed him there,
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.