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CUTHAH

(Heb. kûṯ, kûṯâ; Akk. Kutû)
(also CUTH)

A major northern city ca. 30 km. (19 mi.) NE of ancient Babylon. The large artificial mound of Tell Ibrāhîm, almost certainly the site of ancient Cuthah, was only briefly excavated in the 1880s and subjected to surface surveys in the 20th century; hence, the political and cultic history of the site’s occupation is essentially limited to written sources.

Neo-Assyrian kings anxious to legitimate their political ties to Babylonia performed sacrifices at Cuthah (Shalmaneser III, Šamši-adad V, Adad-nirari III, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II [?], Esarhaddon [?], Assurbanipal). Periodically Cuthah joined other Babylonian forces in resisting Neo-Assyrian imperial ambitions, and was conquered by Sennacherib and Assurbanipal, both of whom exiled Babylonians by the thousands in the 7th century b.c.e. and are thus better candidates for the unnamed Assyrian king behind the settlement of Cuthean exiles in the former northern kingdom (2 Kgs. 17:24) than the commentators’ favorite, Sargon II.

Cuthah was the locus of a popular chthonic pantheon centered on the god Nergal in various manifestations, his consort Laṣ, and Ereškigal, queen of the underworld. Worship of Cuthean Nergal is attested from the reign of Naram-sîn in the 3rd millennium and continues into the Seleucid era. 2 Kgs. 17:30, part of a longer passage describing the non-Yahwistic cults practiced by peoples settled in the former northern kingdom, claims that the exiles of Cuthah (here Cuth) worshipped Nergal.

Bibliography. D. O. Edzard and M. Gallery, “Kutha,” Reallexikon der Assyriologie 6 (Berlin, 1980-83): 384-87.

Steven W. Holloway

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CUTHAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)