Nergal was a Mesopotamian deity associated with war, plague, and the underworld, worshipped by the people from Kut who were settled in Samaria by the Assyrian king after Israel's fall. He is mentioned in the Bible as one of the foreign gods introduced into the territory of the northern kingdom, illustrating the religious syncretism that characterized the region after the exile. In a biblical context, Nergal represents the threat of idolatry to the worship of the true God.
Hechos clave
Assyrian deportation and resettlement in Samaria
After the Assyrian king conquered Samaria, people from several nations, including Kut, were settled in the cities of Samaria. The people from Kut brought with them the worship of Nergal.
24The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
Each nation that was settled in Samaria made their own images of gods and set them up in the high places. The people from Kut made Nergal as their deity.
29Yet each nation went on making its own gods, and they set them up in the shrines the Samaritans had built at the high places, each nation in the towns where they lived.
The newly arrived peoples feared the Lord while also serving their own gods, leading to a mixture of true worship and idolatry in the region of Samaria.
Even though an Israelite priest was sent back to teach the peoples how to worship the Lord, they continued to worship their own gods, including Nergal, alongside the Lord.
34To this day they persist in their former customs. They do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow the statutes and ordinances, the law and the commandment that the LORD gave the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
41So these nations feared the LORD, yet they served their carved images; and their children and their children's children continue to this day to do just as their fathers did.