HAMATH, ENTRANCE OF. The “entrance of Hamath” was the S border of the territory controlled by Hamath and the ideal N border of the Promised Land of Israel in the OT. However, it was only under David and Solomon and Jeroboam II that the territory of Israel extended so far (Num 13:21; 34:8; Josh 13:5; Judg 3:3; 1 Kings 8:65; 2 Kings 14:25; 1 Chron 13:5; 2 Chron 7:8; Amos 6:14). Ezekiel prophesied that some day it would be the boundary of the ideally restored Israel (47:16f., 20). Exactly where this N boundary was has not been determined. It was somewhere between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains, perhaps in the lower part of the Valley of On, through which the road to Hamath lay. Numbers 13:21 mentions it with Rehob near Dan. Among places that have been suggested for its location are the Orontes valley between Antioch and Seleucia, a part of the valley of Coele-Syria, and the territory of Riblah.