CUTHAH or CUTH kooth’ ə, kooth (כּוּתָה or כּ֔וּת; LXX Χουά, Χουθά, Χουνθά, Χωθά; Babylonian kûtû or kûtê; Vul. Chutaei, Cutha; Luther Chuth, Cutha).

1. One of the most important cities of ancient Babylonia—perhaps even the capital of an early Sumer. empire (2 Kings 17:24, 30). Today the site is marked by Tel-Ibrâhîm (c. twenty m. NE of Babylon) which was excavated superficially by Hormuzd Rassam (1881-82). The ruins are described as c. 3,000 ft. in circumference and 280 ft. high. Contract tablets were found which give the name as Gudua or Kutû. To the W lies a smaller mound crowned with a sanctuary in memory of Ibrâhîm (Abraham). Cuthah had a temple (E-shid-lam) dedicated to Nergal, king of the underworld. The city was prob. important commercially because it had two rivers (or canals). Sennacherib boasts that he destroyed Cuthah in one of his campaigns; Nebuchadnezzar later rebuilt its beautiful temple. Cuthah is one of the cities from which Sargon II deported colonists to repopulate N Israel after Samaria had capitulated (721 b.c.). Apparently these aliens were predominant because the inhabitants of Samaria were long called Cutheans.

2. The name Cutha (LXX Χουθά [A]; B omits; KJV COUTHA) appears in the Apoc. (1 Esdras 5:32). An exile, head of a family of Temple servants who returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel. He is omitted in the canonical parallels (Ezra 2:52; Neh 7:54).