Ashteroth Karnaim

Ashteroth Karnaim (Hebrew: עַשְׁתְּרֹת קַרְנַיִם, romanized: ʿAštərōṯ Qarnayim, lit. 'Astarte of the Two Horns'), also rendered as Ashtaroth Karnaim, was a city in Bashan east of the Jordan River.

A distinction is to be made between two neighbouring cities: Ashtaroth, and northeast of it Karnaim, the latter annexing the name of the former after Ashtaroth's decline and becoming known as Ashteroth Karnaim.^[2]

Ashteroth Karnaim was mentioned under this name in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 14:5), and in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 12:4) where it is rendered simply as "Ashtaroth". Karnaim is also mentioned by the prophet Amos (Book of Amos 6:13) where those in Israel are boasting to have taken it by their own strength.

Karnaim/Ashteroth Karnaim is considered to be the same with Hellenistic era Karnein of 2 Maccabees 12:21, rendered in the King James Version as Carnion,^[2] and possibly as "Carnaim" in 1 Maccabees.^{[citation needed]}

Eusebius (c. 260/265–340) writes of Karneia/Karnaia, a large village in "Arabia", where a house of Job was identified by tradition.^[2][3]

Tell Ashtara is mentioned in the Assyrian relief in 730/727 BCE, which is in the British Museum.^[4] It is a town where Levites lived. It is mentioned twice in the cuneiform Amarna letters of 1350 BC. The relief depicts the Assyrians removing the people from Ashteroth in 730–727 BC. The relief was excavated at Nimrud by Austen Henry Layard in 1851. The name Ashteroth is inscribed in cuneiform on the top of the relief. The king in the lower register is Tiglath-pileser III. This is the first exile of the people out of Israel into Assyria. This event is mentioned in the Bible in 2 Kings 15:29: "In the days of King Pekah of Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor—Gilead, Galilee, the entire region of Naphtali; and he deported the inhabitants to Assyria."

The floppy turbans and pointed shoes and the style of the cloaks are typical for Israel at that period; the same clothes are shown on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III.^[5] The Black Obelisk is dated to about 825 BCE. It was also excavated at Nimrud by Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1848. It shows Jehu, King of Northern Israel, or his representative offering tribute to Shalmaneser III on the second register down.

The name translates literally to "Astarte of the Two Horns". Astarte was a goddess of civilisation and fertility in Canaanite religion.

The identification of the two sites is not straightforward, but there is some degree of consensus.^[6]

• Asherah