Hebrew word · H807

אֲשִׁימָא

'ashima'

Ashima

Proper name of a god of Hamath, found only here in the Bible in this form. The final ʾaleph (-a) has an Aramaic shape, which suits Aramean Hamath.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 15, 2026

What it means

§ Ashima = "guiltiness: I will make desolate"

a god of Hamath

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Proper name of a god of Hamath, found only here in the Bible in this form. The final ʾaleph (-a) has an Aramaic shape, which suits Aramean Hamath.
Against the English: English versions transliterate it as 'Ashima'. The possible Hebrew pun on 'guilt' cannot come through in English.
Used elsewhere in the period: (1) The 5th-century BC Aramaic papyri from the Jewish colony at Elephantine in Egypt list offerings for Yahu (YHWH) alongside Ashim-Bethel (ʾšmbytʾl) and Anat-Bethel. This suggests a deity 'Ashim' was worshipped by Arameans and others. (2) Amos 8:14 condemns those who 'swear by ʾashmat Shomeron'. This is often translated 'the guilt of Samaria', but many scholars read it as 'Ashimah of Samaria', a goddess. If so, a cult of this name was known in the north even before 722 BC, or the Hebrew word was bent into a pun. (3) Some suggest the name comes from a Semitic word meaning 'name' (šmʾ), used as a reverent title for a god. The Septuagint has Asimath; the Talmud (Sanhedrin 63b) explains the image as a bald goat.

2 Kings · 1

2 Kings 17:30 אֲשִׁימָֽא׃ Ashima

The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

Here: A god of Hamath who appears nowhere else in exactly this form. It may be linked to the Aramaic deity Ashim-Bethel known from Elephantine in Egypt. To Hebrew ears it also sounds like ʾashmah, 'guilt', which may be deliberate.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.