- Ashima
In the
Hebrew Bible , Ashima is one of several deities protecting the individual cities ofSamaria who are mentioned specifically by name in 2 Kings 17:30. From the scribes' point of view the cities should not have been makingcult image s ("idols"), because they had agreed to worship the God of the Israelites that had once lived in the land, as described in some detail in the 2 Kings 17::"...And the king of
Assyria brought men fromBabylon , and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities ofSamaria instead of thechildren of Israel ; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. And so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord; therefore the Lord sentlion s among them, which killed some of them...Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying: 'Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.' So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. However, every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which theSamaritan s had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon madeSuccoth-benoth , and the men of Cuth madeNergal , and the men of Hamath made Ashima,...Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law or after the commandment which the Lord commanded the children ofJacob , whom He named Israel; with whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying: 'You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;'...So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day." (2 Kings 17:24-41) [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et09b17.htm]Comments
Ashima was a West Semitic goddess of fate related to the Akkadian goddess
Shimti ("fate"), who was a goddess in her own right but also a title of other goddesses such asDamkina andIshtar . Damkina, for example, was titled "banat shimti", “creator of fate”. The name Ashima could be translated as "the name, portion, or lot" depending on context. It comes from the same root as the Arabian "qisma" and the Turkishkismet .As such Ashima is cognate with the South Semitic goddess Manathu (or Manat) whose name meant "the measurer, fate, or portion" who was worshiped by the
Nabataean peoples ofJordan and other early South Semitic and Arabian peoples. Both names appear in alternate verses inUgaritic texts. ("In the same way, the name of the goddess"Asherah "appears in alternate verses with" Elath to indicate that both names refer to the same goddess). Ashim-Yahu and Ashim-Beth-El are forms of her name and a variant of her name is also attested in the Hebrew temple inElephantine in Egypt.Some speculate that Ashima was praised by tribes in what appears to be
Asia Minor andNorth Africa , but more specifically byHamath , who were later deported toSamaria in theLand of Israel . The Hebrew Bible states that the goddess should not be worshiped, but that the Samaritans nevertheless worshiped it, together with other deities, clandestinely.External links
* [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-68310?tocId=68310 Ashima in North Arabian inscriptions ]
* [http://www.religionswissenschaft.unizh.ch/idd/prepublications/e_idd_ashima.pdf Iconography of Ashima (PDF-article)]
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