מלכים ב, פרק י״ז, פסוק ל׳

Following the exile of the native residents of Samaria, the foreign nations brought in to replace them continued to cling to their original beliefs. As they settled into their new environment, each group crafted the familiar idols of their homelands. These idols, whose names reflected the distinct local languages of the various nations, were overwhelmingly designed in the shapes of different animals.

The people of Babylon worshipped an idol known as Succoth-benoth. The primary approach among commentators is that this figure was shaped like a mother hen surrounded by her chicks, with the idol's name directly combining local terms for a hen and her young [רד״ק]. While this specific image characterized Babylonian worship during the era of the Assyrian empire, their religious focus shifted in later periods. By the time of rulers like Nebuchadnezzar, the central Babylonian idol had changed and was known as Bel [רד״ק, אברבנאל].

Settlers from Cuth, a city located in the land of Chaldea [אברבנאל], brought with them the worship of Nergal. This figure was considered one of the primary idols in Assyria [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Similar to the Babylonian idol, Nergal was also shaped like a rooster, though it specifically took the form of a wild rooster [רד״ק].

Meanwhile, the people of Hamath worshipped an idol called Ashima. Commentators agree that this figure was fashioned in the shape of a goat, though there are different ways to understand the meaning behind its name. One perspective explains that the idol represented a bald goat completely lacking wool, with its name deriving from a word meaning desolate or bare [רד״ק, אברבנאל]. Alternatively, the name is thought to be closely related to a sheep, drawing a connection to the type of ram traditionally brought as a guilt offering [רד״ק, אברבנאל].