1. A strong city of Moab; called also Kir-hareseth, Kir-haresh, and Kir-heres, Isaiah 15:1; 16:7,11; Jeremiah 48:31 . It was once nearly destroyed by Joram king of Israel, 2 Kings 3:25 . It is now called Kerak, and is a town of three hundred families, on a steep hill at the head of a ravine running up fifteen miles into the mountains of Moab. Three-fourths of its present inhabitants are nominal Christians, greatly oppressed by the Mohammedan Arabs around them.
2. A region to which Tiglath-pileser transported the captive people of Damascus, 2 Kings 16:9; believed to have been in the vicinity of the river Kur or Cyrus, on the northeast of Armenia. The Kur flows southeast, unites with the Araxes, and empties into the Caspian Sea.