HAMATH hā’ măth (חֲמָ֖ת; ̔Ημαθ; Αἱμηθ; KJV once HEMATH (Amos 6:14), and once in the Apocraypha AMATHIS (1 Macc 12:25), fortification, citadel. A city of Syria c. 125 m. N of Damascus. It was built on both banks of the Orontes River. The city was surrounded by hills and had a warm and humid climate.

The city was founded in the Neolithic period and destroyed c. 1750 b.c., prob. by the Hyksos, although there are no findings from the Hyksos period. Thutmose III (1502-1448) conquered the city, and during the time of Egyp. control of Syria the city prospered. Sometime before 900 b.c. it became the Hitt. capital of a small kingdom. Many Hitt. inscrs. have been found.

Shalmaneser III (c. 860-825 b.c.) invaded the Hitt. country as far as the Mediterranean. To resist him a Syrian league, which included Damascus, Israel, Hamath, and twelve kings of the coast, was formed. A battle was fought at Karkar in 854 b.c., but it must have ended indecisively, since both sides claimed the victory. Three years later Shalmaneser III was again stopped by the league, but in the eleventh year of his reign he plundered many towns of the kingdom of Hamath, although he was stopped again. He returned in the fourteenth year of his reign, and this time he conquered and broke the power of the league.

Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 b.c.) conquered Hamath and compelled it to pay tribute. Sargon II conquered and destroyed the city in 720 b.c. He transported peoples from a number of different territories in his kingdom, including Hamath, and settled them in the cities of Samaria, replacing the Israelites he had taken into captivity. These people brought with them their pagan gods (2 Kings 17:24, 30). Among the places to which he transported Israelites was Hamath (Isa 11:11). After Sargon’s time the city seems to have become subordinate to Damascus (Jer 49:23). There are a number of references in the OT to the Assyrian conquest of Hamath (2 Kings 18:34; 19:13; Isa 10:9; 36:19; 37:13; Amos 6:2). Amos calls the city Hamath the Great (6:2).

The Babylonian Chronicle records that at Hamath Nebuchadnezzar overtook the Egyptians fleeing from Carchemish (605 b.c.). Jeremiah (49:23) and Zechariah (9:2) say that the city was doomed. Jeremiah classed the city with Arpad, and Zechariah with Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon. Ezekiel prophesied that the land of Israel would some day extend N to Hamath (47:16, 17; 48:1).

Antiochus IV Epiphanes renamed the city Epiphania (Jos. Antiq. 1. 6. 2). In the Maccabean war Jonathan met the army of Demetrius in the region of Hamath.

The modern city of Hama, with a population of about 65,000, is built around the tell of the ancient city. Harald Inghalt conducted excavations at Hamath in 1931-1938. He discovered twelve strata of occupation from the Arab down to the Neolithic stratum.

Bibliography H. Inghalt, Rapport preliminaire sur sep campagnes de fouilles a Hama en Syrie, 1932-38 (1940).