Ivah

Ivah (also spelled Avva or Ava, meaning overturning) was a city of the Assyrian empire from which colonists were deported to repopulate Samaria after the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC (2 Kings 17:24). These settlers brought their own gods with them, and 2 Kings 17:31 records that the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, names otherwise unknown in ancient Near Eastern records.

Ivah appears again in the Rabshakeh's taunt speech before Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:34; 19:13; Isaiah 36:19; 37:13): the Assyrian envoy asks where are the gods of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah — cities whose gods had failed to protect them from Assyrian conquest — as proof that the LORD could not protect Jerusalem either. The rhetorical strategy equates the God of Israel with the defeated gods of these nations. Hezekiah's prayer in response (2 Kings 19:14–19) acknowledges that the Assyrians had indeed destroyed those nations and their gods, but affirms that the LORD is the living God whose alone is different in kind from idols of wood and stone. The divine answer through Isaiah vindicates this distinction.