Kirjath-jearim

(the city of forests ), first mentioned as one of the four cities of the Gibeonites, ( Joshua 9:17 ) it next occurs as one of the landmarks of the northern boundary of Judah, ch ( Joshua 15:9 ) and as the point at which the western and southern boundaries of Benjamin coincided, ch. ( Joshua 18:14 Joshua 18:15 ) and in the last two passages we find that it bore another, perhaps earlier, name --that of the great Canaanite deity Baal, namely BAALAH and KIRJATH-BAAL. At this place the ark remained for twenty years. ( 1 Samuel 7:2 ) At the close of that time Kirjath-jearim lost its sacred treasure, on its removal by David to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. ( 1 Chronicles 13:5 1 Chronicles 13:6 ; 2 Chronicles 1:4 ; 2 Samuel 6:2 ) etc. To Eusebius and Jerome it appears to have been well known. They describe it as a village at the ninth mile between Jerusalem and Diospolis (Lydda). These requirements are exactly fulfilled in the small modern village of Kuriet-el-Enab --now usually known as Abu Gosh , from the robber chief whose headquarters it was --on the road from Jaffa and Jerusalem.