Kiriath Jearim
קִרְיַת יְעָרִים · “Kiryat Yearim” on the map
Where was biblical Kiriath Jearim? At Deir el-Azar, the church hill above Abu Ghosh, about 13 km west of Jerusalem. I mark it very likely.
The men of Kiryat Yearim carried the Ark up to the house of Abinadab on the hill and set his son Eleazar to guard it. It stayed twenty years, until David came to bring it up to Jerusalem.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Deir el-Azar, the church hill above Abu Ghosh
- How sure
- Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
- Other names
- Kiriath-jearim, Kiryat Ye'arim, Kiriath-baal, Baalah, Baale-judah, Baalim of Judah, Deir el-Azar, Qaryat el-'Enab
- Location
- 31.8086° N, 35.1038° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The text gives two clues. Joshua runs the border between Judah and Benjamin through "Baalah, that is Kiryat Yearim," west of Jerusalem. And Kiryat Yearim is one of the four Gibeonite towns that tricked Joshua into a treaty, so it belongs in the hills just west and north of the capital.
Eusebius fills in the distance. He puts Kiryat Yearim about nine Roman miles from Jerusalem. Walk that far west and you reach Abu Ghosh. The village's older Arabic name was Qaryat el-'Enab, the town of grapes, which still keeps the "Kiryat." The hill above it is Deir el-Azar, the monastery of Eleazar. Many link that name to Eleazar son of Abinadab, the Ark's guardian. A Byzantine church already marked the summit, and the junction of the two tribes' borders falls right here.
Excavators recently found a huge platform on the summit, built to raise the hilltop. Its excavators think it lifted the summit for a place of worship. It doesn't prove the Ark stood there, but it shows this was no ordinary village.
From here David set out with the new cart and the singing crowd, the procession that ended when Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark and died. The prophet Uriah, who preached like Jeremiah, also came from this town.
Some archaeologists place Kiryat Yearim at Tel Motza instead, a few kilometers east, where an Iron Age temple has come to light. The map stays with Abu Ghosh. The name, the distance from Eusebius and the border line all point here.
Visiting today
The church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant crowns the hill above Abu Ghosh and is open to visitors.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Kiryat Yearim on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Zobah (Tzova) 3 km southeast
- Mozah (Motza) 6 km east
- Aijalon (Ayalon) 9 km northwest
- Beth Horon 9 km north
- Nephtoah 9 km east
- Gibeon 9 km northeast
Sources and further reading
- Kiriath-Jearim (Wikipedia)
- Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant Church (Wikipedia)
- college-de-france.fr