Kiriath-Jearim (alsoKiryat Ye'arim;[1]Hebrew:קִרְיַת-יְעָרִיםQīryaṯ Yə‘ārīm, "city of woods";Ancient Greek:ΚαριαθιαριμKariathiarim;Latin:Cariathiarim) was a city in theLand of Israel. It is mentioned 18 times in theHebrew Bible. The biblical place was identified withAbu Ghosh.
Other names are Kiriath-Ba'al, Ba'alah and Ba'ale-Judah (see, e.g. Joshua 15:60;2 Samuel 6:2; 1 Chronicles 13:6), which implies the city was affiliated withBaal worship at an earlier date.[2]
InEusebius'Onomasticon, Kiryat Ye'arim is placed about 9Roman miles, or about 15 km (9 mi), fromJerusalem.Palestine Exploration Fund explorersClaude Reignier Conder and Henderson have identified it with the site now known asKhirbet 'Erma, a ruin located 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) south ofKasla and 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi) east ofBeit Shemesh.[3] However, starting withEdward Robinson, biblical Kiriath-Jearim has been more often identified with Deir el-Azar (Tel Qiryat Yearim),[4][5][6] a place nearAbu Ghosh on a hill where the Deir El-Azar Monastery currently stands, about 7 mi (11 km) west of Jerusalem. This site was the only major biblical site in ancient Judah that had not been excavated, until an excavation began in 2017 by a team fromTel Aviv University and theCollège de France.[7]
Kiriath-Jearim was described as aHivite city linked to theGibeonites (seeJoshua 9:17). It was a key landmark in identifying the border between the tribes ofJudah andBenjamin (seeJoshua 15:9 &18:14, 15). It is mentioned as the place theArk of the Covenant may have been moved after being inBeit Shemesh (1 Samuel 6:21–7:2). More than twenty years[8] afterward, the ark was moved to Jerusalem and placed in a tent outside the palace ofDavid.
Kiriath-Jearim's change in designation from Kiriath-Ba'al (meaning City of Baal, or City of the Lord)[9] may indicate the population change that took place afterJoshua's military campaign to take possession of the land from its previous inhabitants. According toIsrael Finkelstein and Thomas Romer, the possibility that Kiriath-ba‘al/Ba‘alah was the original name of the town, or more correctly its Northern name, hints that the godYHWH was worshipped asBaal, before that title became a negative link with "foreign" (Phoenician or other) storm gods.[10]
TheHebrew Bible identifies at least one prophet of God who came from this town.Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, was from Kiriath-Jearim, and was a contemporary ofJeremiah who prophesied against Jerusalem (seeJeremiah 26:20). This aroused the wrath ofKing Jehoiakim (r. 609–598 BC) who sought to put Uriah to death. Uriah escaped to Egypt, where he was apprehended by the king's henchman and extradited to Jerusalem for execution and burial in an unmarked grave (Jeremiah 26:22–23).
The writer of theBooks of Chronicles teaches thatShobal (possibly a descendant ofCaleb) was "the father of Kiriath-Jearim" (see 1 Chronicles 2:50–53), possibly in the sense of being the founder of this town.
Descendants of Kiriath-Jearim were among the Jewish exiles who returned to Judea withZerubbabel (seeNehemiah 7:29).
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