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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 personal name Nergal-sharezer ( Jer. 39.3, Jer. 13). II. Identity An early attestation …

I. Name The Babylonian word ṣalmu is used as the equivalent of Sum. alam, dùl and nu. It refers both to statues and other symbols of gods and humans. Though occasionally preceded by the divine determinative ( dingir), the image ( ṣalmu) was not viewed as a god itself. A cult of a deity ‘Image’ (* Ṣulmu), however, is attested for the city of Taima in north-west Arabia. The closest analogy in the Hebrew Bible is the cult of erected stones ( maṣṣēbôt), whose anointment with oil reflects a kind of worship. II. Identity Images played an important role in Babylonian religion. Both image…

I. Name Assur occurs in the OT as a person, the second son of Shem in the table of nations ( Gen. 10.22), as a people or world power, and as the land of Assyria. While the concept of the power may have been sometimes subsumed in the concept of the deity, the only certain attestation of the name of the deity can be found within the name of the king Esarhaddon ( Isa. 37.38 = 2 Kgs. 19.37, Ezra 4.2). II. Identity Assur is the god of Assyria par excellence. His name is identical with that of the city of Assur, which with its temple, the bı̄t Aššur, later Ekur, was the main centre of his cult. The signif…