town or village

Kiriath-jearim

• Today Deir el Azar

Open on the map →

History

Kiriath-jearim, "town of forests", is usually identified with Deir el-Azar, a hill above the village of Abu Ghosh about 12 km west of Jerusalem, on the road that goes down from the hills to the coastal plain. Eusebius placed it nine or ten miles from Jerusalem on the road to Diospolis, that is Lydda. Though it is a large mound, it was hardly dug until Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University Thomas Römer of the Collège de France and Christophe Nicolle of the CNRS excavated it in 2017 and 2019.

Kiriath-jearim was one of the four cities of the Gibeonites who made a league with Joshua. It was also called Baalah and Kirjath-baal, and it marked the border between Judah and Benjamin as a city of Judah. The Danites, going north, camped at Kiriath-jearim, and the place behind the town was called Mahaneh-dan. When the men of Beth-shemesh would not keep the ark, the men of Kiriath-jearim brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep it, and it stayed there twenty years. Then David and all Israel went up to Kiriath-jearim to bring the ark to Jerusalem. Chronicles calls Shobal "the father of Kirjath-jearim".

In the days of Jehoiakim the prophet Urijah the son of Shemaiah, of Kiriath-jearim, prophesied against Jerusalem as Jeremiah did; he fled to Egypt, but the king had him brought back and slew him with the sword. After the exile the men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah and Beeroth who returned numbered seven hundred and forty-three. On the summit the excavators found a large raised platform; they date it to the first half of the eighth century BC and credit it to the kingdom of Israel, a view not all scholars share.

Josephus, retelling the story of the ark, calls Kirjathjearim a city in the neighbourhood of Bethshemesh. In the fourth century Eusebius still knew it as a village and as the home of the prophet Urijah. On the top of the hill stood a Byzantine church, probably of the fifth century, and in 1924 the church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant was built over its remains.

Scripture: Josh 9:17; Josh 15:9; Josh 15:60; Josh 18:14; Judg 18:12; 1 Sam 6:21–7:2; 1 Chr 13:5–6; 2 Chr 1:4; 1 Chr 2:50; Jer 26:20–23; Ezra 2:25; Neh 7:29

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (19)

Josh 9:17

And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim.

Josh 15:9

And the border was drawn from the top of the hill unto the fountain of the water of Nephtoah, and went out to the cities of mount Ephron; and the border was drawn to Baalah, which is Kirjath-jearim:

Josh 15:60

Kirjath-baal, which is Kirjath-jearim, and Rabbah; two cities with their villages:

Josh 18:14

And the border was drawn thence, and compassed the corner of the sea southward, from the hill that lieth before Beth-horon southward; and the goings out thereof were at Kirjath-baal, which is Kirjath-jearim, a city of the children of Judah: this was the west quarter.

Josh 18:15

And the south quarter was from the end of Kirjath-jearim, and the border went out on the west, and went out to the well of waters of Nephtoah:

Josh 18:28

And Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath, and Kirjath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.

Judg 18:12

And they went up, and pitched in Kirjath-jearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan unto this day: behold, it is behind Kirjath-jearim.

1 Sam 6:21

And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.

1 Sam 7:1

And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.

1 Sam 7:2

And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.

1 Chr 2:50

These were the sons of Caleb the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah; Shobal the father of Kirjath-jearim,

1 Chr 2:52

And Shobal the father of Kirjath-jearim had sons; Haroeh, and half of the Manahethites.

1 Chr 2:53

And the families of Kirjath-jearim; the Ithrites, and the Puhites, and the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; of them came the Zareathites, and the Eshtaulites.

1 Chr 13:5

So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kirjath-jearim.

1 Chr 13:6

And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it.

2 Chr 1:4

But the ark of God had David brought up from Kirjath-jearim to the place which David had prepared for it: for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.

Ezra 2:25

The children of Kirjath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty and three.

Neh 7:29

The men of Kirjath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty and three.

Jer 26:20

And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Samuel and the ark →