KIRIATH-JEARIM

(Kirʹi·ath-jeʹa·rim) [Town of Forests].

A Hivite city associated with the Gibeonites (Jos 9:17), also known as Baalah (Jos 15:9), Baale-judah (2Sa 6:2), and Kiriath-baal (Jos 15:60). Kiriath-jearim later came to belong to Judah and bordered on Benjamite territory. (Jos 15:1, 9; 18:11, 14; Jg 18:12) Apparently descendants of Judah through Caleb settled there.​—1Ch 2:3, 50, 52, 53.

In the 12th century B.C.E., sometime after being returned by the Philistines, the Ark was taken to Kiriath-jearim at the request of the men of nearby Beth-shemesh. It apparently remained there until it was moved by King David to Jerusalem some 70 years later.​—1Sa 6:20–7:2; 1Ch 13:5, 6; 16:1; 2Ch 1:4.

Jeremiah’s contemporary, the prophet Urijah, was the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim. (Jer 26:20) Descendants of those who had lived in the city were also represented among those returning from Babylonian exile.​—Ezr 2:1, 2, 25; Ne 7:6, 7, 29.

Deir el-ʽAzar (Tel Qiryat Yeʽarim) is the place commonly suggested as corresponding to the Biblical description of Kiriath-jearim as a city of the mountainous region (Jos 15:48, 60) on the border between Judah and Benjamin in the vicinity of the other Gibeonite cities. This site is strategically situated atop a hill about 14 km (8.5 mi) ENE of Beth-shemesh and about 13 km (8 mi) WNW of Jerusalem. This location approximately fits Eusebius’ placing Kiriath-jearim once as 9 Roman miles (13 km; 8 mi) and another time as 10 Roman miles (15 km; 9 mi) from Jerusalem. Also, the fact that Deir el-ʽAzar lies in what at one time seems to have been a well-wooded region accords nicely with the name Kiriath-jearim, “Town of Forests.”