Jaar

Jaar (Hebrew "forest" or "wood") was the poetic shortened name for Kiriath-jearim ("the city of forests") used in Psalm 132:6, the great psalm celebrating David's vow to bring the ark up to Jerusalem: "Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood [Jaar]." The "fields of the wood" recall the ark's twenty-year resting place at Kiriath-jearim after the Philistines returned it (1 Samuel 7:1-2). The site is identified with Deir el-Azhar west of Jerusalem — the same site as Kiriath-jearim, Baalah, and Baale-judah.