Meaning of MERODACH-BALADAN

Hebrew form from the Akkadian: "Marduk has borne a son" (in 2 Kings 20:12, Berodach, as it appears in the Hebrew text, cf. the 1909 revision of the King James Version, must be due to the error of a copyist, unless the "b" represents an intermediate sound between the "m" and the "b" in Akkadian).

King of Babylon, son of Baladan (2 Kings 20:12), originally from Bit-Yakin, near the mouth of the Euphrates, the original area of the Chaldeans. Skillful, brave and determined, he became their leader. Around 731 BC, he submitted to Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria.

But in the year 722, during the siege of Samaria by the Assyrian armies, the Babylonians learned of the death of Shalmansar V, king of Assyria. Merodach-baladan took advantage of this circumstance to seize the throne of Babylon.

Sargon, king of Assyria, recognized its independence in 721 BC. Merodach-baladan reigned for 11 years. It was he who, around the year 712, sent an embassy to Hezekiah who, under the pretext of a courtesy visit (2 Kings 20:12-19; 2 Chron. 32:31; Is. 39:1-8), was to make efforts in convincing him to join forces with the rulers of Babylon, Susa, Phoenicia, Moab, Edom, Philistia and Egypt, against the empire of Assyria.

Sargon undid this plan, attacking his enemies individually before they had formally allied themselves, and defeated them one by one. In the year 710, Sargon seized Babylon; In the year 709 he took BitYakin, and Merodach-baladan, who was taking refuge there, fell into his hands.

However, the Assyrians left him established in Bit-Yakin. In the year 703 he re-entered Babylon, making Borsipa his favorite residence. This second reign, however, did not last even a year. Sennacherib, son and successor of Sargon, defeated him and sent him to BitYakin.

In the year 694, Sennacherib decided to subdue the Chaldeans. He went down with a fleet down the Tigris River to Opis, from where he passed them over land to the Euphrates.

They thus arrived at Bit-Yakin and subjugated it, together with the Elam. Thus Merodachbaladan could not carry out his plans, but from then on the Chaldeans, absorbed into the Babylonian group, came to constitute its dominant caste.