Kirjathaim

Kirjathaim (meaning two cities or double city) refers to two distinct biblical sites. The first was a city east of the Jordan in the territory allotted to Reuben, mentioned in Numbers 32:37 and Joshua 13:19. It is identified with Khirbet el-Qureiyeh (or Qaryatein) on the Moabite plateau, and appears in Jeremiah 48:1, 23 and Ezekiel 25:9 in prophetic oracles against Moab—apparently having reverted to Moabite control by the time of those prophecies. The Mesha Stele also mentions this city.

A second Kirjathaim was a city of Naphtali listed in 1 Chronicles 6:76 as assigned to the Gershonite Levites, where it is equated with Kartan of Joshua 21:32. Genesis 14:5 mentions Shaveh-kiriathaim (plain of Kirjathaim) as the location where the eastern coalition kings defeated the Emims during the campaign of Chedorlaomer—a reference to the Moabite site, which was ancient enough by Abraham's time to have already been associated with a named plain. The dual form of the name (-aim) in both Hebrew and Akkadian (qiryatayn) confirms a double settlement at both sites.