a city of Syria, capital of a province of the same name, lying upon the Orontes. "The entering into Hamath," which is frequently spoken of Hamath in Scripture, (Josh. xiii. 5. Judges iii. 3. 2 Kings xiv. 25. &c.) 2 Chr. vii. 8.) is the narrow pass leading from the land of Canaan through the valley which lies between Libanus and Antilibanus. This entrance into Hamath is set down as the northern boundary of the land of Canaan, in opposition to the southern limits, the Nile or river of Egypt. Josephus, and St Jerome after him, believed Hamath to be Epiphania. But Theodoret and many other good geographers maintain it to be Emesa in Syria. Joshua (xix. 35:) assigns the city of Hamath to the tribe of Naphtali. Toi king of Hamath cultivated a good understanding with David, (2 Sam. viii. 9.). This city was taken by the kings of Judah, and retaken from the Syrians by Jeroboam the second, (2 Kings xiv. 28.). The kings of Assyria made themselves masters of it upon the declension of the kingdom of Israel, and transplanted the inhabitants of Hamath into Samaria, (2 Kings xvii. 24. and xviii. 34. &c.).