Tartak

Tartak was a deity worshipped by the Avvites, one of the foreign peoples the Assyrians settled in Samaria after deporting the northern Israelites (2 Kgs. 17:31). The Avvites made idols of Nibhaz and Tartak, worshipping them alongside the gods they had brought from their homeland. Nothing further is known of Tartak from biblical or extra-biblical sources; the name and origin remain obscure, though the pairing with Nibhaz suggests a Mesopotamian or Syrian provenance. The syncretistic religion of the Samaritans that resulted — mixing Yahweh worship with paganism — was condemned by the biblical writers (2 Kgs. 17:33).