Kerioth

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("closely contiguous cities".)

1. Read together, without "and," Kerioth Hezron (Kuryetein, "the two cities," now 10 miles S. of Hebron):  Joshua 15:25; in southern Judah. Hazor implies a pastoral spot; Kerioth, Kir ("a wall"), Kirjah , imply "military fortifications"; Welsh, Caer . The Hazors are in the southern or Negeb plain; the Kirjahs in the hills.

2. A city of Moab ( Jeremiah 48:24), named with other places "far and near"; if "far" include 60 miles N.N.E. of Heshbon, then Kerioth is now Kureiyeh and Bozrah is Buzrah. Others conjecture Kureyat; Cyril Graham Kiriath and Kiriatain S.W. of Bozrah, containing primitive and gigantic edifices, the roofs formed of stone beams laid side by side, 25 ft. long, and the doors slabs of single stones; the work probably of the giant Emim, the name Kerioth too being perhaps of Anakim origin.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

KERIOTH . A city of Moab, named in   Jeremiah 48:24;   Jeremiah 48:41 ,   Amos 2:2 , and in line 13 of the Moabite Stone. It has been identified with Ar, the capital city of Moab, as that has been with Rabbah both identifications being precarious. More is to be said for Kerioth being the same as Kir-heres of   Isaiah 16:11 and of   Jeremiah 48:31;   Jeremiah 48:36 . The latter is a stronghold to this day, and fits in with the suggestion of the passages above that Kerioth was a capital city of Moab, and the seat of the worship of Chemosh.

W. F. Cobb.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

A city of Moab ( Jeremiah 48:24,41 ), called Kirioth ( Amos 2:2 ).

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Kerioth'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/k/kerioth.html. 1897.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. City in the south of Judah.  Joshua 15:25 . This passage is better read, 'Kerioth-hezron, which is Hazor.' Identified with el Kureitein, 31 21' N, 35 7' E .

2. City of Moab denounced for judgement.  Jeremiah 48:24,41 . Probably the same as KIRIOTHin  Amos 2:2 .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ke'rioth. (Cities).

1. A name which occurs among the lists of the towns in the southern district of Judah.  Joshua 15:25. Supposed by some to have been the birthplace of Judas Iscariot.

2. A city of Moab, named by Jeremiah only,  Jeremiah 48:24.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Jeremiah 48:24 48:41 Amos 2:2 Amos 2:2Iscariot

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

KERIOTH. —See Judas Iscariot.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Keriyoth', קְרַיּוֹת , Cities; Sept. in Jeremiah Καριώθ , in  Genesis 27:41 v. r. Ἀκκαριώθ and Ἀκκαρών , elsewhere Πόλεις ; Vulg. Carioth; Auth. Vers." Kirioth" in Amos ii, 2), the name of two places.

1. A town in the south of Judah (hence probably included within Simeon), mentioned between Hadattah and Hezron ( Joshua 15:25). From the absence of the copulative after it, Reland (Palcest. p. 700,708) suggested that the name ought to be joined with the succeeding, i. q. Cities Of Hezron, i.e. Hazor itself, as in several ancient versions (but see Keil, ad loc.); and Maurer (Comment. ad loc.) has defended this construction, which the enumeration in  Joshua 15:32 :requires, i.e. Kerioth-Hezron =Hazor-Amam. SEE Judah, Tribe Of It seems to be the place alluded to in the name of Judas Iscariot ( Ι᾿Σκαριώτης , i.e . אַישׁ קְרַרַיּוֹה , Native Of Kerioth). Dr. Robinson conjectures (Bibl. Researches, ii, 472) that the site is to be found in the ruined foundations of a small village discovered by him on the slope of a ridge about ten miles south of Hebron, and still called by the equivalent Arabic name el-Kuryetein (comp. De Saulcy's Dead Sea, i, 431; Van de Velde, Narrative, ii, 82). With this agree the plural form of the word, the associated epithets, and the frontier position, suggesting that the place was a fortification of contiguous hamlets for nomades rather than an individual city. (See City); (See Hazor).

2. A strong city of the land of Moab, mentioned in connection with Beth- gamul and Bozrah ( Jeremiah 48:24), in the prophetic denunciations of its overthrow by the Babylonian invaders on their way to Palestine ( Jeremiah 48:41;  Amos 2:2). But for the mention of Kiriathaim in the same connection (from which, however, it is somewhat difficult to distinguish it), we should be inclined (seeRitter's Erdk. 15: 583) to locate it at Kureyat on Jebel Attarus, east of the Dead Sea. (See Kirjath- Huzoth). Porter confidently identifies it with the present Kureiyeh, six miles east of Busrah, in the plain at the foot of the mountain range of Bashan, where are very extensive remains of former edifices (Damascus, ii, 191 sq.). But the associate names (in the first passage of Jeremiah) appear to indicate a locality south-west of Bozrah, and it is doubtful whether the Mishor (q.v.) of Moab extended so far as this. (See Bozrah). The Kerioth (Cities) in question may therefore be "the ancient cities t! the north of Amman and south-west of Busrah, still bearing the names of Kiriath and Kiriatin, where the edifices are of such gigantic proportions and primitive forms as to induce a strong conviction that they were the work of the early Emim" (Graham, in the Jour. Of Sac. Lit. April, 185.8, p. 240).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kē´ri - oth , - ōth ( קריּות , ḳerı̄yōth ):

(1) A city of Moab, named with Beth-meon and Bozrah ( Jeremiah 48:24 ,  Jeremiah 48:41 ). Here was a sanctuary of Chemosh, to which Mesha says (M S, l. 13) he dragged "the altar hearths of Davdoh." It may possibly be represented by the modern Ḳuraiāt , between Dibān and ‛Aṭṭārūs . Some (e.g. Driver on  Amos 2:2 ) think it may be only another name for Ar-Moab. Buhl ( GAP , 270) would identify it with Kir of Moab ( Kerak ). No certainty is yet possible.

(2) A city of Judah ( Joshua 15:25; the Revised Version (British and American) Kerioth-Hezron (which see)), possibly the modern el - Ḳuryatain , to the Northeast of Tell ‛Arād .