EMATH (Heb. Hāniṯ). - 1. A very ancient city of Syria, connected with the ports of Aradus (Arvad) and Simyra (Gen. 18:8), mentioned in the list of Thutmose III and occupied by the Hittites, as numerous inscriptions attest.

Toi, its king, congratulated David on the victory over Hadadezer, their common enemy (2 Sam. 8:9-11). It seems that in Solomon's time it was tributary to the Israelites, but at the king's death and the division of the kingdom it regained its independence, only to return again to the kings of Israel under Jeroboam II (2 Chron. 8:4; 2 Kings 14:28).

At the battle of Qarqar (854) it was allied with Benadad II king of Damascus and Ahab king of Israel against Shalmaneser III, but in the end it was reduced to an Assyrian province by Sargon II and its inhabitants were deported as colonists to Samaria (II Kings 17:24; 18:34; 19:13). After this the history of the "region of E." (I Macc. 12:25) merges with the general history of Syria. Under the Seleucids the capital received the name Epiphania in honor of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The ancient name is found again in present-day Hama, on the Orontes, a city of 60,000 inhabitants and of great commerce. The excavations of 1931 brought to light many pages of its ancient history.

2. The expression "pass of E." (Vulg. introitus E.; Heb. lēbhō Hāmāth) in the Old Testament marks the northern boundary of the Promised Land (Num. 13:21; 34:8; Josh. 13:5; I Kings 8:65; Ezek. 47:16; 48:1). It refers in all probability to the mouth of the pass between Mount Hermon and Lebanon, which constituted the natural route "to go to E." (lēbhō Hāmāth). The texts that require the proximity of Rohob to Lais-Dan (Num. 13:22; Judg. 18:28) do not have in view a fixed and determined point, but place the boundary south of the Beqā' (= Coele-Syria) and north of Merq' Ajūn.

The recent conjecture that sees in lēbhō a proper name surviving in 'Ajn Lebweh, 38 km. south of Ribāh, does not have the support of the biblical texts.

3. A locality in the tribe of Naphtali (Josh. 19:35), Heb. Hammath, today Hammām south of Tiberias, where there is a bathing establishment of curative hot waters, already extolled by Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Jud., XVIII, 2, 3; Bell. Jud., IV, 1, 3). In 1931 an ancient synagogue was discovered there.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, I, Paris 1933, p. 300; II, ibid. 1938, pp. 341-42.

Donato Baldi

@incollection{ec5_emath_ebr_hanith, author = {Baldi, Donato}, title = {Emath (Ebr. Hánith)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {272--273}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/emath-ebr-hanith} }

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