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MERODACH-BALADAN

(Heb. mĕrōḏāḵ balʾăḏān; Akk. marduk-apla-iddina)

A Chaldean sheikh of the Bīt-yakin tribe and twice king of Babylon. As early as ca. 731 b.c. he was allied with Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria against another Babylonian ruler. Taking advantage of a perceived weakness in Assyria when Sargon II (721-705) usurped the throne, Merodach-baladan became king of Babylon, most likely with the help of neighboring Elam. The Assyrians were unable to remove him from Babylon until they defeated his Elamite allies in 710. Having no allies thereafter, Merodach-baladan was deposed by Sargon and once again became a local Chaldean sheikh, vassal to the Assyrian king.

Upon Sargon’s death in battle in 705, Merodach-baladan helped to instigate a rebellion against Assyrian rule. It is here that the narrative in 2 Kgs. 20:12-19 (cf. Isa. 39:1-8) is likely to be placed. The Babylonian sheikh came to Jerusalem to entreat King Hezekiah of Judah to support his cause, a plan which was opposed by the prophet Isaiah. But in view of Hezekiah’s actions against Assyrian rule, he apparently did act in concert with Merodach-baladan’s strategy. Merodach-baladan deposed the Assyrian appointee to the Babylonian throne in 703 and ruled from nearby Borsippa until he himself was deposed that same year by Sennacherib, the new king of Assyria. Merodach-baladan fled to Elam, where he died soon thereafter.

Bibliography. J. A. Brinkman, “Merodach-Baladan II,” in Studies Presented to A. Leo Oppenheim, ed. R. Biggs and J. A. Brinkman (Chicago, 1964), 6-53; Prelude to Empire: Babylonian Society and Politics, 747-626 b.c. (Philadelphia, 1984).

Mark W. Chavalas

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MERODACH-BALADAN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)