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2 Chronicles 1 (WEB)

Kiriath-jearim·City

1 Sam 6:21 Kiryat Yearim (today Abu Gosh) has a long reputation for beguiling or charming enemies into pacts of peace.  Kiryat Yearim (typically identified as Deir el-‘Azar above Abu Gosh) is one of the four Gibeionite cities that made a pact with Joshua (Josh 9:17) and served as a border town between Judah and Benjamin (Josh 15:9,60; 18:28). Kiryath-Yearim has a number of former names such as Baalah, Kiryat-baal, and Baale of Judah (Josh 15:9; 18:14; 2 Sam 6:2; 1 Chr 13:6) and is identified as modern Deir el-‘Azar. 

Kiryat Yearim  also figured prominently in the story of the Ark of the Covenant. Israel received the Ark after the Philistine sent it up the Sorek valley by Beth-Shemesh (1 Sam 6), and after the plague there, it was taken up to Kiriath-Yearim for 20 years (1 Sam 7:1).  The exact location of the Ark in Kiryat Yearim is given as the house of Abinadav son of Eleazar on the hill (2 Sam 6:3).  The modern Arabic term for the tel (Deir el-Azar) may be connected to Eleazar.  The Ark seems to fall out of use (maybe because Mizpah and Gibeah are more prominent) as Saul “paid not regard to it” (1 Chr 13:3).  Psalms 132:6 assumes it is quite unknown until “found in the region of Yaar.”  (But compare 1 Sam 14:18.)  David hoped to move the ark from Kiryat-Yearim to the city of David, but he was afraid of it after Ahio son of Abinadav drove the cart that carried the Ark (rather than the Kohathite priests, see 1 Chr 15) and his brother Uzzah touched the Ark and died at the threshing-floor of Nachon (2 Sam 6:6).  Due to this, David took the Ark aside into the house of Obed-edom from Gath (2 Sam 6:10) for three months (2 Sam 6:11; 1 Chr 13:14), until David finally brought the Ark to the City of David in Jerusalem in a manner that followed the Torah (1 Chr 15-16). 

While plowing in 1905, a farmer discovered a semi-circular wall on the summit of Deir el-‘Azar which turned out to be remnants of a fifth-century Byzantine church.  Many objects from this era can be seen around the new Church built on the summit in the early 1900s by Sister Josephine Rumebe.  This church with its towering statue of Mary belongs to the French Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, who call it Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant: associating Mary containing Yeshua with the Ark containing the Ten Commandments.

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2 Chronicles 1 (WEB)

1Solomon the son of David was firmly established in his kingdom, and Yahweh his God was with him, and made him exceedingly great.

2Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every prince in all Israel, the heads of the fathers’ households. 3Then Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for God’s Tent of Meeting was there, which Yahweh’s servant Moses had made in the wilderness. 4But David had brought God’s ark up from Kiriath Jearim to the place that David had prepared for it; for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. 5Moreover the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there before Yahweh’s tabernacle; and Solomon and the assembly were seeking counsel there. 6Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before Yahweh, which was at the Tent of Meeting, and offered one thousand burnt offerings on it.

7That night, God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for what you want me to give you.”

8Solomon said to God, “You have shown great loving kindness to David my father, and have made me king in his place. 9Now, Yahweh God, let your promise to David my father be established; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. 10Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of yours?”

11God said to Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, nor yet have you asked for long life; but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people, over whom I have made you king, 12therefore wisdom and knowledge is granted to you. I will give you riches, wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had who have been before you, and none after you will have.”

13So Solomon came from the high place that was at Gibeon, from before the Tent of Meeting, to Jerusalem; and he reigned over Israel.

14Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. He had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen that he placed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. 15The king made silver and gold to be as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars to be as common as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland. 16The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt and from Kue. The king’s merchants purchased them from Kue. 17They imported from Egypt then exported a chariot for six hundred pieces of silver and a horse for one hundred fifty. They also exported them to the Hittite kings and the Syrian kings.

World English Bible · public domain · ebible.org

Kiriath-jearim