KIRIATHAIM

(Kir·i·a·thaʹim) [twin cities].

1. A city E of the Jordan, built or rebuilt by the Reubenites. (Num. 32:37; Josh. 13:15, 19) At a later period the city came under Moabite control. It is mentioned in the prophecies of Jeremiah (48:1) and Ezekiel (25:9) as a city of Moab that would experience calamity. Earlier, Moabite King Mesha of the tenth century B.C.E. boasted about building Qaryaten (apparently Kiriathaim).

Geographers usually identify Kiriathaim with modern el-Qereiyat, about six miles (10 kilometers) NW of the suggested location of Biblical Dibon. The remains found there, however, do not date prior to the first century B.C.E.

2. A site in Naphtali given to the Levitical Gershonites (1 Chron. 6:71, 76) and generally identified with Kartan.—Josh. 21:32; see KARTAN.