city of jaars; i.e., of woods or forests, a Gibeonite town ( Joshua 9:17 ) on the border of Benjamin, to which tribe it was assigned ( Joshua 18:15 Joshua 18:28 ). The ark was brought to this place ( 1 Samuel 7:1 1 Samuel 7:2 ) from Beth-shemesh and put in charge of Abinadab, a Levite. Here it remained till it was removed by David to Jerusalem ( 2 Samuel 6:2 2 Samuel 6:3 2 Samuel 6:12 ; 1 Chronicles 15:1-29 ; Compare Psalms 132 ). It was also called Baalah ( Joshua 15:9 ) and Kirjath-baal (60). It has been usually identified with Kuriet el-'Enab (i.e., "city of grapes"), among the hills, about 8 miles north-east of 'Ain Shems (i.e., Beth-shemesh). The opinion, however, that it is to be identified with 'Erma, 4 miles east of 'Ain Shems, on the edge of the valley of Sorek, seems to be better supported. (See KIRJATH .)
The words of Psalms 132:6 , "We found it in the fields of the wood," refer to the sojourn of the ark at Kirjath-jearim. "Wood" is here the rendering of the Hebrew word jaar , which is the singular of jearim .
city of woods
(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.