When the Assyrian empire emptied the northern kingdom of Israel of its native inhabitants, they repopulated the desolate land with a strange mixture of captive nations. Among these displaced peoples were the men of Cuth, a region heavily steeped in Mesopotamian occultism. In their baggage, they brought the dark, martial veneration of Nergal, the lord of the underworld, war, and pestilence. The scriptures capture this precise moment of religious syncretism, recording:
“And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima” (2 Kings 17:30).
Nergal, whose name etymologically tracks to the Sumerian En-Eri-Gal meaning “Lord of the Great City”—a euphemism for the realm of the dead—was no minor tribal deity. He represented the scorching, destructive heat of the summer sun, the devastating sweep of plagues, and the brutal fury of the battlefield. In the cuneiform records of the Assyrian kings, he is frequently invoked alongside colossal stone monuments. The great winged lions that guarded the thresholds of imperial palaces, known as nirgali, were the physical representation of his aggressive power, casting an imposing silhouette of terror over all who entered.
The name of this underworld entity is also woven directly into the historical narrative of Jerusalem’s fall. When Nebuchadnezzar’s forces breached the walls of the holy city, the princes of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate, chief among them being Nergal-sharezer:
“And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 39:3).
This name, meaning “O Nergal, protect the prince,” stands as a grim monument in prose, showing how deeply embedded this false deity was within the power structures of the empires that sought to crush the remnant of God’s people. Though the pagan nations attempted to blend the worship of the true God of Israel with their own regional idols, the scriptural verdict remained absolute: they feared the Lord with their lips, but served their own graven images in their hearts.