I. Name

Nergal with his city Cutha is mentioned in 2 Kgs. 17.30 within the description of the cults of the foreign settlers in Samaria. The particular relevance of Nergal in this context is to be explained by the fact that inhabitants of Cutha had been settled in Samaria while Samarians had been deported to Assyria (H. Winckler, Die Keilschrifttexte Sargons [Leipzig 1889] 100:23–24; C. J. Gadd, Iraq 16 [1954] 179–180 iv:25–41; Becking 1992:25–31.97). The deity also occurs as theophoric element in the …