and ASHTAROTH-CARNAIM, a town of Bashan (Deut. i. 4; Josh. ix. 10). It is now usually identified with Mezareib, which was built about 350 years ago by the Sultan Selim, and consists of a castle and store-houses to supply provisions to the pilgrims on their way to Mecca. On an elevated spot at the extremity of a promontory advancing into the neighbouring lake, stands a sort of chapel, around which are many ruins of ancient buildings.—Buckingham's Arab Tribes.

ASHTORETH, ASHTAROTH, or ASTARTE, in Antiquity, a goddess of the Sidonians, and also of the Philistines, whose worship was introduced among the Israelites during the period of the Judges (Judg. ii. 13; I Sam. vii. 4), and celebrated by Solomon himself, in compliment to one of his wives. In the reign of Ahab, Jezebel caused her worship to be performed with much pomp and ceremony; she had 400 priests; the women were employed in weaving hangings or tabernacles for her; and Jeremiah observes, that "the children gathered the wood, the fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded the dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven." The best etymology of the word, and that approved by Gesenius, deduces it from the Persian sitārāh, star, with a prosthetic guttural. Ashtaroth is the plural form, which, perhaps, denoted a plurality of images (like the Greek Ἐσχάτη), or it was used as the pluralis excellentia among the Hebrews in words denoting "lord." Most modern scholars assume that Asherah was another name for Ashtoreth, whose worship has been identified with that of the Greek Aphrodite, which was introduced into Cyprus from the East.