or ASTARTE, a goddess of the Zidonians. The word Ashtaroth properly signifies flocks of sheep, or goats; and sometimes the grove, or woods, because she was goddess of woods, and groves were her temples. In groves consecrated to her, such lasciviousness was committed as rendered her worship infamous. She was also called the queen of heaven; and sometimes her worship is said to be that of “the host of heaven.” She was certainly represented in the same manner as Isis, with cows’ horns on her head, to denote the increase and decrease of the moon. Cicero calls her the fourth Venus of the Syrians. She is almost always joined with Baal, and is called a god, the Scriptures having no particular word to express a goddess. It is believed that the moon was adored in this idol. Her temples generally accompanied those of the sun; and while bloody sacrifices of human victims were offered to Baal, bread, liquors, and perfumes were presented to Astarte. For her, tables were prepared upon the flat terrace roofs of houses, near gates, in porches, and at cross- ways, on the first day of every month; and this was called by the Greeks, Hecate’s supper.
Solomon, seduced by his foreign wives, introduced the worship of Ashtaroth into Israel; but Jezebel, daughter of the king of Tyre, and wife to Ahab, principally established her worship. She caused altars to be erected to this idol in every part of Israel; and at one time four hundred priests attended the worship of Ashtaroth, 1Ki 18:7.
Ash´taroth and Ashtaroth-Carnaim, a town of Bashan (Deu 1:4; Jos 9:10) which was included in the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh (Jos 13:31), and was assigned to the Levites (1Ch 6:71). It is placed by Eusebius 6 miles from Edrei, the other principal town of Bashan, and 25 miles from Bostra. The town existed in the time of Abraham (Gen 14:5); and as its name of Ashtaroth appears to be derived from the worship of the moon under that name [ASHTORETH], there is little need to look farther than the crescent of that luminary and its symbolical image for an explanation of the addition Carnaim, or rather Karnaim, ’horned.’ Astaroth-Carnaim is now usually identified with Mezareib, the situation of which corresponds accurately enough with the distances given by Eusebius. Here is the first castle on the great pilgrim road from Damascus to Mecca, which was built about 340 years ago by the Sultan Selim. There are no dwellings beyond the castle, and within it only a few mud huts upon the flat roofs of the warehouses, occupied by the peasants who cultivate the neighboring grounds.
ASHTAROTH or ASTAROTH. A city N.E. of Jordan, called so from being a seat of Ashtoreth’s worship, "Og dwelt in Ashtaroth, in Edrei" (Deu 1:4; Jos 12:4; Jos 13:12-31; Jos 9:10). Allotted to Machir, son of Manasseh; and, out of Manasseh’s portion, then allotted to the sons of Gershom, their other Levitical city here being Golan (Jos 21:27), called Be-eshterah (i.e. Beth Ashterah, "the house of Ashtaroth.") Between Adara and Abila (according to Eusebius and-Jerome) lay two villages, probably the one Ashtaroth, the other Ashteroth-Karnaim. There is still a Tel Ashterah in this region. One of David’s valiant men was Uzziah the Ashterathite (1Ch 11:44).
(Heb. Ashtaroth’,
Ashtaroth (ăsh’ta-rŏth), Astaroth (ăs’-tâ-rŏth). 1. A city of Bashan, east of the Jordan, Deu 1:4; Jos 9:10; Jos 13:31; the same as Beesh-terah, Jos 21:27; probably Tell-Ashterah, in Jaulan. 2. Ashtoreth, sing.; Ashtaroth, plur. and more usual. An idol called the goddess of the Sidonians, Jdg 2:13, much worshipped in Syria and Phœnicia. Solomon introduced the worship of it. 1Ki 11:33. The Greeks and Romans called it Astarte. The 400 prophets of the Asherah which ate at Jezebel’s table, mentioned 1Ki 18:19, R. V., were probably employed in the service of Asherah, the female deity. The worship of Ashtoreth was suppressed by Josiah. The goddess was called the "queen of heaven," and the worship was said to be paid to the "host of heaven." Her name is usually mentioned in connection with Baal. Baal and Ashtoreth are taken by many scholars as standing for the sun and the moon respectively.
By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., George A. Barton
A city east of the Jordan on the table-land of Gilead. It was the capital of the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan (Josh. ix. 10), though it would seem from other passages (Deut. i. 4; Josh. xii. 4, xiii. 12 and 31) that Edrei shared that honor. The two cities seem to have constituted his kingdom. Afterward Ashtaroth was one of the Levitical cities (I Chron. vi. 56 [A. V. 71]). Its name appears in the Old Testament as a plural, but it was no doubt originally simply "Ashtart," derived from the old Semitic goddess, whose temple it no doubt contained. The relation of Ashtaroth to Ashteroth Karnaim is obscure. Eusebius ("Onomastica," ed. Lagarde, ccix. 61, ccxiii. 39) gives two trans-Jordanic places called Ashtart. Buhl ("Geographie," pp. 248 et seq.) holds that there were two places, and identifies Tell-Ashtereh with Ashtaroth, and El-Muzêrîb with Ashtoreth Karnaim. Similarly, G. A. Smith in 1895 ("Historical Geography," map) identified Ashtaroth with Tell-Ashtereh, and Ashteroth Karnaim with Tell-Ashary, but has since found reason to discard this view.
It seems probable that there was in the Old Testament period only one city, known variously as "Ashtaroth," "Ashteroth Karnaim," and "Karnaim," and that the statement of Eusebius is due to the interchange which some of the names of the region underwent in the later time. This conclusion seems justified from the fact that the sources which are really old (the inscription of Thothmes III. [W. Max Müller, "Asien und Europa," p. 162], and El-Amarna letters; compare Schrader, "K. B." v. (see p. 206) Nos. 142, 237; and Sayce, "Patriarchal Palestine," pp. 133, 153) mention but one place, and that the Biblical material is all of such a nature as to make the supposition of two places unnecessary. The question can not be actually determined till the sites are explored.
Bibliography:
Schumacher, Across the Jordan, pp. 121-147;
Merrill, East of Jordan, 329 et seq.;
and the bibliography under Ashtoreth.
ASHTAROTH.—This city (pl. of Ashtoreth [wh. see]), originally held by Og, king of Bashan (Deu 1:4, Jos 9:10; Jos 12:4; Jos 13:12; Jos 13:31), later captured by the Israelites and by them awarded to the Gershonites (Jos 21:27 Be-eshterah, ‘dwelling [or temple] of Ashtoreth’; cf. || 1Ch 6:56, which reads Ashtaroth), might, without contradicting Biblical records, be identified with Ashteroth-Karnaim (wh. see). However, a statement found in Eusebius’ Onomasticon favours the view that the names designate two localities. Eusebius relates that there were at his time two villages of the same name, separated by a distance of 9 miles, lying between Adara (Edrei) and Abila; viz., (1) Ashtaroth, the ancient city of Og, 6 miles from Abila, and (2) Karnaim Ashtaroth, a village in the corner of Bashan, where Job’s village is shown (cf. Book of Jubilees 29:10). Eusebius’ Karnaim Ashtaroth evidently lay in the corner or angle formed by the rivers Nahr er-Rukkad and Sharî‘at el-Manadireh, in which vicinity tradition places Uz, Job’s fatherland. At long. 36° E., lat. 32° 50′ N., on the Bashan plateau, stands Tell (‘hill’) ‘Ashtarâ, whose strategical value, as shown by the ruins, was recognized in the Middle Ages. Its base is watered by the Moyet en-Nebî Ayyûb (‘stream of the prophet Job’). Following this rivulet’s course for 21/2 miles N.N.E., passing through the Hammam Ayyûb (‘Job’s bath’), is found its source, a spring said to have welled forth when Job in his impatience stamped upon the ground. In the immediate vicinity towards the S., Job’s grave is shown. Furthermore, upon the hill at whose base these two places are situated lies the village of Sa‘dîyeh or Sheikh Sa‘d, whose mosque contains the Sakhret Ayyûb, a large basalt boulder against which Job is said to have leant while receiving his friends. Indeed, ¾ of a mile S. of Sa dîyeh at el-Merkez, another grave (modern) of Job is shown, and a Der (‘monastery’) Ayyûb, according to tradition built by the Ghassanide Amr I., is known to have existed. Eusebius’ Ashtaroth must then have been in the proximity of Muzerib, 91/2 miles S. of Sa‘dîyeh, and 8 miles N.W. of Adara, almost the distance of the Onomasticon. Even Tell Ash‘arî, 41/4 miles S. of Tell ‘Ashtarâ, protected on the one side by the Yarmuk, on the second by a chasm, and showing evidences of having been fortified by a triple wall on the third, is admirably situated for a royal stronghold.
None of these modern place-names, with the exception of Tell ‘Ashtarâ, is linguistically related to the ‘Ashtaroth and ‘Ashteroth-karnaim of the Bible and the Onomasticon. The description of ‘Ashteroth-karnaim (2Ma 12:21 f., cf. 1Ma 5:43) as a place hard to besiege and difficult of access because of numerous passes leading to it, in whose territory a temple was situated, is applicable to Sa‘dîyeh or to Tell ‘Ashtarâ or even to Tell Ash‘arî, whose double peak at the S. summit is partly responsible for the translation of the name ‘Ashtaroth of (near) the double peak’ (see Ashtoreth). The similarity of name between Tell ‘Ashtarâ and ‘Ashteroth-karnaim, even though Tell ‘Ashtarâ does not lie directly between Adara and Abila, and lacks, with the other places, narrow passes, would favour the identification of ‘Ashteroth-karnaim with Tell ‘Ashtarâ, and hence, according to the distances of Eusebius, the location of ‘Ashtaroth near Muzerib. However, until the ancient name of Muzerib is known, and the various sites excavated, a definite determination of the location of these cities, and even of the difference between them, must remain impossible.
N. Koenig.
Plural of Ashtoreth. See ASHTORETH.