Ashima

As strange as it may seem, Believers are usually afraid to study this subject, leaving themselves ill-equipped to understand more than 250 verses in the Biblical Text and approximately 4o different gods and goddesses.
Ashima – was the idol of Hamath mentioned in 2 Kgs. 17:30. This was a deity worshipped as a figure of a goat without wool. The goat is found among the sacred animals of the Babylonian monuments. Ashima corresponded with the Egyptian Mendes, the Greek Pan, and the Phoenician Esmun. Hamath was on the border of Israel in the north Assyria, and was occupied by the Hittites among other Canaanite peoples during the Biblical period. Hamath was one of the places where Solomon built storehouses (2 Chron. 8), and the Hamathites are listed as last in the table of Canaanite nations in Gen. 10. During the time of David, Toi was king of Hamath, and Amos mentions it as a great city in his writings. This was one of the spots where Israelites were exiled in Isa. 11, and when Sargon II deported the local inhabitants of Samaria, he imported the people of Hamath (modern Hama in Syria) to live in Samaria (2 Kngs. 17). The most widely accepted interpretation of the word Ashima is that it is an Aram form meaning the Name. The only other possible reference to Ashimain in the Bible is found in the unclear statement of Amos 8:14.