2. KIRJATHA1M, KIRIATHAIM t14.1"1:1r.), two cities,' or donble city ;' Kaptcad,u ; Alex. Kapta BAIA ; Curial/rain* i. A city of Reuben, situated a little to the south of Heshbon (Num. xxxii. 37). Though taken and rebuilt by this tribe, it was again, on the decline of Jewish power, occu pied by the Moabites ; and in pronouncing a pro phetic curse on that nation Jeremiah mentions Kirjathaim with Nebo, Ileshbon, and some other principal cities (xlviii. 1., 23). It appears from an incidental statement of Ezekiel that Kirjathaim was on, or near, the frontier of Moab. ` There fore, behold, I will open the shoulder of Moab from its cities on its frontiers . . . Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and to Kiriathaim' (xxv. 9). The reading in this passage is rynno, which is in tended for onrip, with rl local added, as is seen in the Keri ; the LXX., however, renders it 7r6Xeces 7rapaaXacro-las of the maritime city,' having read n+ sea,' instea'd of the termination TV.
Kiriathaim is mentioned by both Eusebius and Jerome, who state that in their day it was a lame Christian village, situated ten miles west of Medea, and called Coraiatha(Kapea0Letp., according to Eu
sebius, Onomast., s.v. Cariathaim). About eleven miles south-west of the ruins of Medeba is a ruined village called Kureiydt, which is doubtless identical with the Coraiatha of Jerome, and most probably with Kiriathaim. It lies on the south-western slope of Jebel Attarus. It was visited by Seetzen (Reire, ii. 342 ; cf. Ritter, Pal. und Syr., ii. 583). Burckhardt thought that the ruins of Et-Teym, some miles farther north, might be Kiriathaim (Travels in Syria, p. 367 ; Ritter, a p. 1185).
Kiriathaim is one of the oldest of Bible cities. It was on the Wain of Kiriesthaim' (A. V. SHAVEH-K1RIATHAIM, which see) that the Emims were smitten by the eastern kings who plundered Sodom (Gen. xiv. 5). Burckhardt tells us that a few miles south of Kureiyat is a level plateau, still called el-di:aura, a term often applied in Syria to plains.' He would identify it with the Plain of Moab' (Travels in Syria, p. 37i).
ii. A town of Naphtali allotted to the I evites (1 Chron. vi. 76 [60. The parallel passage in Josh. xxi. 32 has KARTAN, which see.—J. L. P.