ASHIMA

(A·shiʹma).

A deity worshiped by the people from Hamath whom the king of Assyria settled in Samaria after his taking the Israelites into captivity. (2Ki 17:24, 30) Ashima, according to the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 63b), was represented as a hairless he-goat, and for this reason some have identified Ashima with Pan, a pastoral god of fertility. Another suggestion is that the name Ashima may be a deliberate alteration of “Asherah” (the Canaanite fertility goddess) to combine it with the Hebrew word ʼa·shamʹ (“guilt”; Ge 26:10). However, nothing can be stated with any certainty aside from what is contained in the Bible.