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KING JAMES BIBLE DICTIONARY

 

Kirjathjearim

 

The Bible

Bible Usage:

Dictionaries:

  • Included in Eastons: Yes
  • Included in Hitchcocks: No
  • Included in Naves: No
  • Included in Smiths: Yes
  • Included in Websters: No
  • Included in Strongs: No
  • Included in Thayers: No
  • Included in BDB: No
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Kirjathjearim

City of jaars; i.e., of woods or forests, a Gibeonite town (Joshua 9:17) on the border of Benjamin, to which tribe it was assigned (18:15, 28). The ark was brought to this place (1 Samuel 7:1, 2) from Beth-shemesh and put in charge of Abinadab, a Levite. Here it remained till it was removed by David to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:2, 3, 12; 1 Chronicles 15:1-29; comp. Psalms 132). It was also called Baalah (Joshua 15:9) and Kirjath-baal (60). It has been usually identified with Kuriet el-Enab (i.e., "city of grapes"), among the hills, about 8 miles north-east of Ain Shems (i.e., Beth-shemesh). The opinion, however, that it is to be identified with Erma, 4 miles east of Ain Shems, on the edge of the valley of Sorek, seems to be better supported. (See KIRJATH.)

The words of Psalms 132:6, "We found it in the fields of the wood," refer to the sojourn of the ark at Kirjath-jearim. "Wood" is here the rendering of the Hebrew word jaar, which is the singular of jearim.


Smith's Bible Dictionary
Kirjathjearim

(the city of forests), first mentioned as one of the four cities of the Gibeonites, (Joshua 9:17) it next occurs as one of the landmarks of the northern boundary of Judah, ch (Joshua 15:9) and as the point at which the western and southern boundaries of Benjamin coincided, ch. (Joshua 18:14,15) and in the last two passages we find that it bore another, perhaps earlier, name

that of the great Canaanite deity Baal, namely BAALAH and KIRJATH-BAAL. At this place the ark remained for twenty years. (1 Samuel 7:2) At the close of that time Kirjath-jearim lost its sacred treasure, on its removal by David to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. (1 Chronicles 13:5,6; 2 Chronicles 1:4; 2 Samuel 6:2) etc. To Eusebius and Jerome it appears to have been well known. They describe it as a village at the ninth mile between Jerusalem and Diospolis (Lydda). These requirements are exactly fulfilled in the small modern village of Kuriet-el-Enab

now usually known as Abu Gosh , from the robber chief whose headquarters it was

on the road from Jaffa and Jerusalem.