It remains only for us to say under this head that the judicious critic will often lind good reason for dif- fering from the opinion that seems to be implied in these Masoretic notes, and will in such cases, of course, prefer the Kethib to the Keri. See Ciuticisji, Bm-
LICAL.
V. Literature.— Ono of the earliest attempts freely to discourse upon the origin and value of the Keri and Kethib is that of D. Kiuichi, in the Introduction to his
Commentary on Joshim ; Abrabanel, too, has a lengthy disquisition on this subject, in the Introduction to his Commentary on Jeremiah. He was followed bj' the la- borious Jacob ben-Chajim,who fidly discusses the Keri and Kethib in his celebrated Introduction to the Jiab- hinic Bible, translated by Ginsburg in the Journal of Sacred Literature for July, 1863 ; and by the erudite and bold Elias Levita, who gives a verj' lucid account of the Keri and Kethib in his Massoreth Ila-Massorelh, ed. Sulzbach, 1771, p. 8 a, sq. ; 21 a, sq. Of Christian writers are to be mentioned the masterly treatises by Cajipellus, Critica Sacra, lib. iii, cap. ix, sq. ; Buxtorf, Tiberias, cap. xiii ; Buxtorf the j'ounger, A nticritica (Basileaj, 1653), cap. iv, p. 448-509; Hilleri De Arcano Kethib et Keri (Tub. 1692) ; AValton, Biblia Pohjrjlotta, Prole;]. (Cantab. 1828), i, 412 sq.; ^Vo\f, Bibliotheca He- brcea, ii, 507-533 ; Frankel, Vorstudien zu der Septua- r/inta (Leipzig, 1841), p. 219 sq. ; Sticht, Be Keri et Kethibh (Altona, 1760 ; and against him Dreschler, Sen- tentia Stichii, etc. Lips. 1763) ; Triigard, De I'npl 2^r3 (Gryph. 1775); WolfFradt, Z)e Keri et ChUhibh (Kost, 1739). See Various Beadixgs.
Keri, Francis Borgia, a learned Hungarian Jes- uit, born in the beginning of the 18th centun,', in the county of Zemplin, Hungary, entered the Jesuitical order when yet very young, and became an instructor of phi- losophy and mathematics at Tyrnau. He died at Buda in 17G9. Keri distinguished himself greatly as a his- torian, especially by his Imperatoi-es Ottomuni a capita Constantinojwli (Tyrnau, 1749, 9 pts. folio). He wrote also Lmjjeratoi-es Orientis compendia exhibiti, e compluri- bus Grcecis pira>cipue scrij^toi-ibus, a Constantino Magna — ad Constantinuni ultimum (Tyrnau, 1744, folio). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biocj. Gener. xxvii, 612 ; Ilorangi, Kova Memoria Ilunriurorum, ii, 332.
Keri, Janos, a noted Hungarian prelate, born in the first half of the 17th century; entered as a mere youth, in 1656, the order of St. Paul, became afterwards director of the establishment, and held successively the bishop- rics of Sirmium,Csanad, and Waitzen. He died in 1685. Bishop Keri wrote L^rocia Martis Tureici (Pos. 1672, 8vo): — Philosophicc scholastica (Presb. 1673, 3 vols, fob), etc. — Hoefer, N'ouv. Biofj. Gen. xxvii, 612; Czwittinger, Ilunyaria Literata, p. 203.
Ke'rioth (Heb. Keriyoth', TT^'lp, cities ; Sept. in Jer. Krtpiw^, in ver. 41 v. r. 'AKKaptwB and 'AKicapwv, elsewhere TroXiig; Yula;. Cariofh; Anth. Vers.'' Klrioth" in Amos ii, 2 ), the name of two places.
1. A town in the south of Jndah (hence probably in- cluded within Simeon\ mentioned between Iladattah and llezron (Josh, xv, 25). From the absence of the copulative after it, Keland {Pulnst. p. 700, 708) suggest- ed that the name ought to be joined with the succeed- ing, i. q. cities of llezron, i. e. Hazor itself, as in several ancient versions (but see Keil, ad loc.) ; and INIaurer {Comment, ad loc.) has defended this construction, which the enumeration in ver. 32 requires, i. e. Kerioth-IIezron = IIazor-Amam. See Jldaii, Tkibe of. It seems to be the place alluded to in the name of Judas Iscariot ('I(TKop((iir?;C) !• e- ^'i'""'p 'Ci''i^, native of Kerioth'). Dr. IJobinson conjectures (7Jib!. Iiesearchcs, ii,472) that the site is to be found in the ruined foundations of a small village discovered by him on the slope of a ridge about ten miles south of Hebron, and still called Ity the equiv- alent Arabic name el-Kuryetein (comp. De Sanlcy's Dead Sea, i, 431 ; Van {k> Yclde, Xarrative, ii, 82). ^^'ith this agree thcpliiraH'urm of the word, the associated ejiifhets, and the frontier position, suggesting that the jilace was a fortification of contiguous hamlets for nomades rather than an individual city. See City; Hazok.
2. A strong city of the land of ]Moab, mentioned in connection Avith Beth-gamnl and Bozrah (.ler. xlviii, 24). in the |ir(iphetic denunciations of its overthrow by the Haliylonian invaders on their way to Palestine (Jer, xlviii, 41 ; Amos ii, 2). But for the mention of Kiri-
KERITHUTH
55
KERR
athaim in the same connection (from which, however, it is somewhat dithcult to distinguish it), we should be in- cUned (see Hitter's Enlk. xv, 583) to locate it at Kureyat on Jebel Attarus, east of the Dead Sea. See Kiiuatii- nuzoTir. Porter confidently identirtcs it with the pres- ent Kureiijeh, six miles east of Busrah, in the plain at the foot of the mountain range of Biishan, where are very extensive remains of former edifices {Dammcus, ii, 191 sri.)- But the associate names (in the first passage of Jer.) appear to indicate a locality south-west of Bozrali, and it is doubtful whether the Mishor (q. v.) of Moab extended so far as this. See Bozuah. The Kerioth (cities) in question may therefore be " the ancient cities to the north of Amman and south-west of Busrah, still bearing the names of Kiriath and Kiriatin, where the edifices are of such gigantic proportions and primitive forms as to induce a strong conviction that they were the work of the early Emim" (Graham, in the Jour, of Sac. Lit. April, 1858, p. 240).