Kirjath Sannah
Kir'jath- San'nah (Hebrew Kiryath'- Sannah', קַריִתאּסִנָּה, perh. city of Sannah; Jos 15:49; Sept. πόλις γραμμάτων), usually Kirjath-se'pher (Heb. Kimryath'-Se'pher, קַריִתאּסֵפֶר, book-city; Sept. πόλις γραμμάτων, Jos 15:15-16; Jg 1:11; πόλις τῶν γραμμάτων, Jg 1:12; v. r. Καριαθσέφερ, Jg 1:11), in later times (Jos 15:15,49; Jg 1:11) called DEBIR SEE DEBIR (q.v.), a Canaanitish royal city (Jos 10:38), afterwards included within the tribe of Judah (Jos 15:48; comp. Jg 1:11), but assigned to the priests (Jos 21:15; 1Ch 6:58; compare Hamesveld, 3:224). The name Debir means a word or oracle, and is applied to that most secret and separated part of the Temple, or of the most holy place, in which the ark of the covenant was placed, and in which responses were given from above the cherubim. From this, coupled with the fact that Kirjath-sepher means" city of writing," it has been conjectured that Debir was some particularly sacred place or seat of learning among the Canaanites, and a repository of their records. " It is not, indeed, probable," as professor Bush remarks (note ad loc. Joshua), "that writing and books, in our sense of the words, were very common among the Canaanites; but some method of recording events, and a sort of learning, was doubtless cultivated in those regions." Bochart (Canaan, ii, 17) explains the latter part of the name Kirjath-sannah as being a Phoenician term equivalent to the Arabic sunna or " precept," which would be in keeping with the above explanation of the other terms. Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 962. 1237) thinks it a term expressive of the paln, and Furst (Heb. Lex. s.v.) thinks it denotes the senna plant. Debir was taken by Joshua (x, 38); but it being afterwards retaken by the Canaanites, Caleb, to whom it was assigned, gave his daughter Achsah in marriage to his nephew Othniel for his bravery in carrying it by storm (Jos 15:16). It was situated in the mountains of Juilah (Jos 15:49), to the south of Hebron (Jos 10:38; see Keil, Comment. ad loc.), and on a high spot not very far from it (Jos 15:15), and appears to have been strongly fortified (Ewald, Gesch. Isr. ii, 289). These circumstances and the associated names (Jos 15:48-50) appear to indicate a position on the mountains southwest of Hebron, in the vicinity of ed-Dhoheriyeh, which has a commanding situation and some ruins (Robinson's Researches, i, 311).
