city of woods
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
Kir'jath-je'arim. (the city of forests). First mentioned as one of the four cities of the Gibeonites, Jos_9:17, it next occurs as one of the landmarks of the northern boundary of Judah, Jos_15:9, and as the point at which the western and southern boundaries of Benjamin coincided, Jos_18:14-15, 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. 1Sa_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. 1Ch_13:5-6; 2Ch_1:4; 2Sa_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.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
Kirjath-jearim
Lieut. Conder regards this as as different place from the simple KIRJATH, andwas inclined at first to locate it at Soba (Tent Work, 1:22), but finally at Khurbet Erma, two and a quarter milessouth of Chesalon or Kesla (Memoirs accompanying the Ordnance Survey, 3:46 sq., where he argues the question at length); but most geographers still incline to the position at Kuryet Enab (or simply el-Kuryet), a full description of the archaeology of which is given in the same Memoirs (3:132 sq.).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.