Hamathites were descendants of Canaan. They inhabited the Kingdom of Hamath, located in what is now western Syria and northern Lebanon.
About seven hundred years B. C. , Sargon, king of Assyria, in subduing a revolt in central Palestine, carried away and into captivity over twenty-five thousand Jews of the northern kingdom of Israel and installed in their place an almost equal number of the descendants of the Cuthites, Sepharvites, and the Hamathites. Later on, Ashurbanipal sent still other colonies to dwell in Samaria. [1]