Ashima

Ashima is named among the foreign deities introduced into Samaria after the Assyrian deportation and resettlement of the region. The passage lists the idols made by each resettled people group: "And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima" (2Ki 17:30).

An Idol of Hamath

When Assyria repopulated the cities of Samaria with peoples from Babylon, Cuth, Hamath, and other regions, each group continued to worship its own gods. The men of Hamath fashioned Ashima — one of several foreign deities named in 2Ki 17 that were venerated alongside, and in place of, the worship of Yahweh. The passage presents this pluralism as a mark of the religious disorder that followed Israel's exile.