King James Bible Dictionary

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.

(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.