Kirjath Jearim
Kirjath Jearim [1]
("city of forests".) Psalms 132:6, "we (David and his people) when in Ephratah heard of the ark" as a hearsay, not as the religious center of the nation as when it was in Shiloh; "we found it in the fields of the wood," i.e. in Kirjath Jearim, the forest town, where it lay neglected under Saul after its restoration by the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 6:21; 1 Samuel 7:1; 2 Samuel 6:2-3-4). David brought it up to Zion. Its other names Baalah, Baale of Judah, Kirjath Baal, betray its original connection with Baal worship ( Joshua 15:9; Joshua 15:60; Joshua 18:14; 1 Chronicles 13:3; 1 Chronicles 13:6).
Contracted into Kirjatharim ( Ezra 2:25). Called simply Kirjath and assigned to Benjamin ( Joshua 18:28). Now Kuryet el Enab, "the city of grapes," on the right bank of a long wady, with a fine old church, stone houses grouped round two or three castle-like houses, the hereditary residences of the family of Abu Ghaush, a marauding chief, amidst olive groves and terraced slopes. But Chaplin identifies Kirjath Jearim with the village Soba, Mount Seir on Judah's border being Bath el Saghir. Caleb's son Shobal was the father or founder over again of Kirjath Jearim ( 1 Chronicles 2:50-53). It was one of the four Gibeonite cities which obtained peace with Israel by deceit ( Joshua 9:17).
