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Bible Encyclopedias
Kirjathaim
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Heb. Kiryatha'yim, קַרְיָתִיַם , two cities, i.e. double-town; Sept. Καριαθάϊμ, but Καριαθάμ in Numbers; ἡ πόλις in Genesis; v. r. Καριαθέμ or Καριαθέν in Jeremiah and Ezekiel; πόλις παραθαλλασσία [apparently mistaking the directive termination אּיְמָה for אּיָם ] in Ezekiel; Auth. Vers. " Kiriathaim" in Jeremiah and Ezekiel), the name of two places.
1. One of the most ancient towns in the country east of the Jordan (see Ewald, Gesch. Isr. i, 308), as it was possessed by the gigantic Emim (Genesis 14:5), who were expelled by the Moabites (compare Deuteronomy 2:9-10), and these, in their turn, were dispossessed by the Amorites, from whom it was taken by the Israelites. Kirjathaim was then assigned to Reuben (Numbers 32:37; Joshua 13:19); but during the Assyrian exile the Moabites again took possession of this and other towns (Jeremiah 48:1; Jeremiah 48:23; Ezekiel 25:9). Burckhardt (Travels, p. 367) found ruins, called El-Teim, which he conjectures to have been Kiriathaim, the last syllable of the name being retained. This is somewhat doubtful, as the Christian village Kariatha or Koreiatha (Καριάδα, Καριάθα) of Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s.v.) is placed ten miles west of Medeba, whereas El-Teim is but two miles (Seetzeni places it at half an hour, Reise, i, 408). Michaelis (Orient. u. exey. Bibl. 3:120; Suppl. 2203 sq.) compares the modern city Kiujathaimi, one day's journey from Palmyra (Wood, Ruins of Pallmyra, p. 34); and Busching (Erdb. 11:5(8) adduces Kriathaim (in Pliny, 6:32, Carriata), a place in the desert of Arabia; but botl these identifications are inadmissible (Hamesvell, 3:169). Ritter (Erdim Ekde, 15:1185,1186) supposes that the Ononmasticon confounds two places of the same name, one being the ancient city corresponding to El-Teim, north of the wady Zurka, and the other the Christian town, represented by the modern KureTyrut, south of the same wady; but we see no occasion for this, as the latter place, the name of which fully agrees, lies at the required distance (eleven miles, Seetzen, Reise, ii, 342) south-west of Medeba (Porter, Handbook, p. 300), upon the southern slope of Jebel Attarus (perhaps referred to by Eusebius in the expression annexed to his description, ἐπὶ τὸν Βάριν, on the Baris, using the term in the sense of a fortress on a hill-top rather than alluding to a position beyond the valley Zurka-Main, which Ritter, p. 578, fancifully conceives to be thus indicated from the abundance of mandrakes, βαάρας). (See KEROTH), 2.
2. A city of refuge in the tribe of Naphtali (1 Chronicles 6:76); elsewhere (Joshua 21:32) called KARTAN (See KARTAN) (q.v.).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Kirjathaim'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/k/kirjathaim.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
