Joshua 15:55

Maon, Carmel, and Ziph. These, as Dean Stanley reminds us, still retain unaltered their old names. "That long line of hills was the beginning of the 'hill country of Judaea,' and when we began to ascend it the first answer to our inquiries after the route told us that it was 'Carmel,' on which Nabal fed his flocks, and close below its long ranges was the hill and ruins of Ziph," close above the hill of Maon, Wilson also ('Lands of the Bible,' 1.380) makes the same remark. Maon is to be remembered as David's hiding place from the enmity of Saul ( 1 Samuel 23:24-26 ), and as the home of Nabal ( 1 Samuel 25:2 ). Carmel (not the famous mountain of that name) meets us again in the history of Saul and of David ( 1 Samuel 15:12 ; 1 Samuel 25:2 , 1 Samuel 25:5 , 1 Samuel 25:7 , 1 Samuel 25:40 ). The neighbourhood of Ziph was also one of David's hiding places, and is described as a "wilderness" in which there was a "wood" in 1 Samuel 23:15 , 1 Samuel 23:19 ; 1 Samuel 26:1 , 1 Samuel 26:2 . See also the prologue to Psalms 54:1-7 . Another Ziph is mentioned in Joshua 15:24 .