Kirjath-huzoth

Kirjath-huzoth (meaning city of streets or populous city) was a Moabite city where Balak king of Moab took the prophet Balaam after he arrived from Pethor in Mesopotamia, having been summoned to curse Israel. Numbers 22:39 records their journey together to this city, where Balak offered oxen and sheep sacrifices before they proceeded to the high places of Baal to begin the attempted oracles against Israel.

The city's location in Moab and its role as the first stopping point before the high places suggests it was a significant urban center in the Moabite heartland, perhaps near the northern Moabite plateau. Its identification with a specific modern site is uncertain. The Kirjath-huzoth episode marks the beginning of the Balaam narrative's movement toward its climax: despite Balak's repeated attempts to get Balaam to curse Israel from different vantage points, God turned each oracle into a blessing, culminating in the famous Messianic prophecy of the Star out of Jacob (Numbers 24:17). Kirjath-huzoth thus stands at the threshold of one of the Old Testament's most remarkable prophetic sequences.