Ashteroth Karnaim


Ashteroth Karnaim, also rendered as Ashtaroth Karnaim, was a city in the land of Bashan east of the Jordan River.
A distinction is to be made between two neighbouring cities: Ashtaroth, and northeast of it Karnaim, the latter annexing the name of the former after Ashtaroth's decline and becoming known as Ashteroth Karnaim.
Ashteroth Karnaim was mentioned under this name in, and in where it is rendered simply as "Ashtaroth". Karnaim is also mentioned by the prophet Amos where those in Israel are boasting to have taken it by their own strength.
Karnaim/Ashteroth Karnaim is considered to be the same with Hellenistic-period Karnein of 2 Maccabees 12:21, rendered in the King James Version as Carnion, and possibly as "Carnaim" in 1 Maccabees.
Eusebius writes of Karneia/Karnaia, a large village in "Arabia", where a house of Job was identified by tradition.

Etymology

The name translates literally to "Astarte of the Horns"; Astarte was a fertility goddess in ancient Canaanite religion, and "horns" were symbolic of mountain peaks.

Identification

The identification of the two sites is not straightforward, but there is some degree of consensus.

Ashtaroth

All sites identified by different scholars at different times as Karnaim/Ashteroth Karnaim lay in modern Syria in the area of Daraa.
Other possible sites proposed in the past are: