MERODACH-BALADAN: The Babylonian king
mentioned in Isa. xxxix. as sending an embassy to
Hezekiah, in the parallel passage,
II Kings xx. 12 19,
appearing either by mistake or change of con
sonants as Berodach-baladan. He was the second
of the name on the throne of
Babylon,
the first
being a member of
the Kasshite dynasty and ru_
fing 1129-17
B.c.
The sources of information about
him, outside of Biblical sources and the Ptolemaic
Canon, are the cuneiform inscriptions, particularly
the king lists, the inscriptions of
Tiglath-Pileser,
Sargon and Sennacherib, and two inscriptions of
Merodach-baladan himself. The mention in the
inscriptions involves the period 729-700
B.C.
as that
of his activity. Variations in the way in which he
is mentioned in the inscriptions of Sennacherib, as
compared with those of Tiglath-Pileser and Sargon,
were supposed to indicate that two persons of the
name were referred to, but recent research has
made it more probable that all the passages deal
with the same man. The Biblical narrative calls
him "son of Baladan," possibly through a misunderstanding of the relation of the two elements in
his name; Tiglath-Pileser and Sargon call him " son
of Yakin "; he speaks of himself as a descendant of
Erba-Marduk (an early king of Babylon) but does
not give his father's name. He was king of BitYakin, one of the Chaldean states on the lower
course of the Tigris and Euphrates, but became a
vassal of Tiglath-Pileser in 729. In 722 he utilized
the confused condition of affairs to make himself
king of Babylon, after forming an anti-Assyrian alliance with Elam, succeeding in 721 in his effort
and holding the position till 709, when he was driven
out by Sargon and his paternal kingdom ravaged.
After the death of Sargon, Merodach-baladan renewed his activity against Babylon and in 703 [704]
once more sat on the throne of that city, only to be
driven out within a year by Sennacherib and compelled to hide in the marshes near the sea. In 701-700 he again attempted to make headway against
the Assyrian, but the vigorous measures of Sennacherib foiled his efforts. After that he disappears
from the Assyrian annals.
There is no reason to doubt the historicity of the
Old-Testament account of the embassy sent to Hez
ekiah, though the purpose was doubtless not that
of sympathy and congratulation, but rather to
involve the Judean king in an anti-Assyrian league.
The time when this took place is not definitely indicated in the Biblical narrative, and has been variously placed by students, with the probabilities in
favor of the time 721-709 when Merodach-baladan
was first king of Babylon [more probably in 704
when Merodach-baladan was again king of Baby-
lon, about lilteen years before the death of Hezekiah;
Isa. xxxviii. 5, xxxix. 1].
(See
Assyria, VI., 3, §§ 11-12; and
Babylonia, VI., 7, § 1.)
(R. Kraetzschmar†.)
Bibliography:
Schrader,
KAT, pp. 72-73, 79-80
et par
sim; idem
KB, vols.
ii.-iii.; idem, in
E. C. A.
Riehm,
Handwörterbuch des
biblischen Altertums, pp. 997-998,
Leipsic, 1894; the
pertinent sections in the works on the
history mentioned under
Assyria,
especially those of
Rogers, Hommel, and 'Bele;
H.
Winckler,
Die Keilech.Vttexts Sargona, i., pp. xv. sqq., xxxi. sqq.,
Leipsic, 1889; idem,
Untereuehungen our altorienemlischen Geschichte, pp.
54 sqq., ib. 1889;
idem,
AIUestamentliche
Untersuchungen,
pp. 138 sqq., ib. 1892; J. F.
McCurdy,
History Prophecy
and the Monuments, §§ 340, 621, 637-638, 880-872, 3 vols.,
New York,
1894-1901; F.
Martin, in Vigouroux,
Dictdonnairs,
part
xxvi. 1001-04;
the later commentaries on If
Kings and Tsaiah;
DB, iii. 347; EB, iii. 3037-38.
