Ash'ima (Heb. Ashima, X^dX, etymology un- known ; Sept. 'Aaipah), is only once mentioned in the Old Testament as the god of the people of Hamath, whose worship the colonists settled by Shalmanezer introduced into Samaria (2 Kings xvii, 30). Tho
ASHKELOX
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Babylonian Talmud, in the treatise Sanhedrin (cited in Carpzov's Apparatus, p. 51G), and the majority of Jewish writers (see Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 236), as- sert that Ashima was worshipped under the form of a goat without wool; the Talmud of Jerusalem (Carpzov, ib.) says under that of a lamb. Elias Levita, a learn- ed rabbi of the sixteenth century, assigns the word the sense of ape ; in which he was, in all probability, de- ceived by the resemblance in sound to the Latin simia. Jurieu and Calmet have proposed other fanciful con- jectures. Aben Ezra's ascription {Prof, ad Esth.) of the name to the Samaritan Pentateuch at Gen. i,l, may be seen in Hottinger's Exercit. Antimorin. p. 40. The opinion, however, that this idol had the form of a goat appears to be the one best supported by arguments as well as by authorities (see Sevrl'.rih, Systema astron. p. 154 sq.). This agrees with the Egyptian worship of Pan (see Selden, De diis Syr. p. 327, 305 sq.), as well as the appearance of the goat among the sacred animals delineated on the Babylonian relics (Millin, Monumens inedits, i, tab. 8, 9). Some have compared the Samaritan Ashmath (r-'I.:X) of Deut. xiv, 5 (see Castell, Annot. <Samar.~), a kind of buck. Barkey, on the other hand (in the Biblioth. Brem. nov. I, i, 125 sq. ; II, iii, 572 sq.), refers to the Phoenician god Es- mun {Ea/iovvog, Damasc. in Photii Biblioth. p. 242, 573; in Phoenician "J "'i'X, Gesenius, Monum. Phan. i, 136), corresponding to the god of health, the Greek yEseulapius (see Movers, Phoniz. i, 5i9 sq.). Hiller {Onomast. p. G09) proposes a Semitic etymology from the Arabic asamat, a title of the lion applied to the sun; and Lette (in the Biblioth. Brem. ncv. I, i, 60 sq.) compares Asam, the Arabic name for a valley or river of the infernal regions. Gesenius {Comment, ub. Jesa. ii, 348) refers to Ashuma, or the genius (star) of Jupi- ter (the heaven), i. e. Mercury, of the Zend-Avesta {Bundehesh, iii, 66) ; but against this Kleuker (in loc.) objects that in the Paris edition (ii, 356) the name is Anhouma. (See Schulde, De Asima Hamathceor. idolo, Viteb. 1722.)
Ash'kelon (Heb. Ashkelon', *fb*£'d*A, prob. mi- gration [the usual form would be PpiaSt, Ashkal; Ro- diger (in Gesenius, Thes. p. 1476) suggests that the uncommon termination is a Philistine form]; Sept. and Josephus, ») ' kvKaXuv ; Auth. Vers. " Askelon," in Judg. i, 18 ; 1 Sam. vi, 17 ; 2 Sam. i, 20 ; the As- calon of the Greeks and Romans and mediaeval writ- ers), a city of the Philistines, and the seat of one of their five states (Judg. xiv, 19 ; 1 Sam. vi, 17 ; 2 Sam. i, 20), but less often mentioned, and apparently less known to the Jews than the other four. This, doubt- less, arose from its remote situation, alone, of all the Philistine towns, on the extreme edge of the shore of the Mediterranean (Jer. xlvii, 7), and also well down to the south. Gaza, indeed, was still farther south, but then it was on the main road from Egypt to the centre and north of Palestine, while Ashkelon lay con- siderably to the left. The site fully bears out the above inference ; but some indications of the fact may be traced, even in the scanty notices of Ashkelon which occur in the Bible. Thus, the name is omitted from the list in Josh, xv of the Philistine towns fall- ing to the lot of Judah (but comp. Joseph. Ant. v, 1, 22, where it is specified), although Ekron, Ashdod, and Gaza are all named ; and considerable uncertainty rests over its mention in Judg. i, 18 (sec Bertheau in Exetj. Hand'), in loc). Samson went down from Tim- nath to Ashkelon, when he slew the thirty men and aook their spoil, as if to a remote place whence his ex- ploit was not likely to be heard of; and the only other mention of it in the historical books is in the formu- listic passages, Josh, xiii, 3, and 1 Sam. vi, 17, and in the casual notices of Jud. ii, £8; 1 Maec. x, 86; xi, 60 ; xii, 33. The other Philistine cities are each dis- tinguished by some special occurrence or fact connect-
ed with it, but except the one exploit of Samson, Ash kelon is to us no more than a name. In the poetical passage 2 Sam. i, 20, it is named among heathen foes. The inhabitants were called Ashkelonites (Heb. Ash- keloni', "Oibp/dX, Sept. 'AaKaXioviTtjc, Auth. Vers. " Eshkalonites," Josh, xiii, 3).