KARNAIM

KARNAIM (Heb. קַרְנַיִם), city of Bashan, associated with Ashteroth in Genesis 14:5; in the Book of Jubilees, it is mentioned as one of the cities of the rephaim (29:11). Amos probably alludes to the capture of Karnaim by Jeroboam II (6:13). After the destruction of Ashteroth by Tiglath-Pileser, Karnaim became the capital of Bashan and gave its name to the Assyrian district of Qarnini. Judah Maccabee conquered the city in his campaign to Gilead (I Macc. 5:43; the Karnion mentioned in II Macc. 12:21 seems to be a different locality). It appears in Midrash Ruth Rabbah 2:10 as Kiryanos (קרינוס). Eusebius identifies Karnaim with the village of Karnaia in Arabia, "where the house of Job is shown" (Onom. 112:3ff.). This would place the ancient site at Sheikh Saʿad in Bashan, 3¾ mi. (6 km.) south of Nawā, where neo-Hittite sculpture and a stele of Ramses II (known locally as "Job's Stone") have been found. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Albright, in: BASOR, 19 (1925), 14–15; E. Schumacher, Across the Jordan (1886), 187–8; Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 413–4; Aharoni, Land, index. (Michael Avi-Yonah)