Bible Locations

Jaar appears in Psalm 132:6, a psalm remembering David's effort to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem: "We heard it in Ephrathah, we came upon it in the fields of Jaar." Jaar means "forest" or "woodland," and "the fields of Jaar" is almost certainly Kiriath-jearim, "town of forests," where the ark stayed in the house of Abinadab for twenty years after the Philistines returned it. David and all Israel went there to bring the ark up to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6, 1 Chronicles 13). The psalm begins with David's vow not to rest "till I find a place for the Lord." Kiriath-jearim is identified with Tel Kiriath Jearim, above the village of Abu Ghosh, about eight miles west of Jerusalem, on wooded hills. A Catholic church there, Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant, marks the tradition.