MERODACH-BALADAN (me -ro'clak bard dan), (Heb. 71:*1/?, mer-o-dak' Merodach has given a son).
Son of Baladan and king of Babylon. He is mentioned also with the name Berodach-baladan (2 Kings xx :12), which form is due to a confu sion of two Hebrew characters which are much alike in their old forms. He is represented as sending messengers to Hezekiah to congraulate him on his recovery from his severe illness. and acquainting himself through them with all the treasures of the Jewish king (2 Chron. xxxii :t ; Is. xxxix :1).
Merodach-baladan was by race a Chaldwan, and though the Chaldeans were almost certainly Sem ites, they were nevertheless quite a different peo ple. (See CHALIVEANS.) He is identified by most modern. scholars with Mardokempad, referred to in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser, Sargon and Sennacherib. He reigned B. C. 72i-7to.
If Hezekiah's sickness immediately followed Sargon's campaign against Ashdod (in 711 B. C.), then Merodach-haladan's embassy, nominally to congratulate IIezekiah on recovery from his sick ness, but really to ascertain the possibility of an alliance against Sargon, took place in 7to B. C. This order is not impossible, for Sargon's next two or three years were spent in fully crushing all of his foes in southern Babylonia. After the conquest and organization of all his long dreatned-of realm, Sargon sought to perpetuate his fame in another way. He established at Khorsabad, several miles above Nineveh, his royal headquarters. Here he built his enormous palace, uncovered by Botta. He entered this magnificent hoine in 706 B. C., and in the very next summer was assassinated by one of his own soldiers. (See AssvniA.) The assassination of Sargon yielded the throne of Assyria to his son, Sennacherib (7o5-68t B. C.). Whether this son had anything to do with the intrigue is not known. It is at least signifi cant that the father's name is not found in the records of the son. This king of Assyria, from his frequent mention in the Bible, is most famil iar to Bible students. His records of his own
campaigns, his conquests, his cruelties, modify in no important respect the character attributed to him by the books of Kings and Isaiah.
The earlier activities of Sennacherib were con fined to his eastern and southern boundaries. He measured lances with the irrepressible Chaldeans of the South. His own brother, whom he had put upon the throne of Babylon, was displaced by a usurper ; and this usurper. after one month, was deposed by Merodach-baladan. Sennacherib swooped down on the intriguing army of seced ers and crushed them, and established his au thority in lower Babylonia. To secure himself still further, he captured and pillaged 75 cities and 420 villages ; 208,000 captives, with nearly a million large and small cattle, he deported to As syria. As a kind of figure-head, he placed on the throne of Babylon Bel-ibni. while the country of Chaldwa was under a military governor. With these tempbrary rulers in power, Sennacherib re turned to Nineveh. (Price, The Monuments and the Old Test., pp. 179-181.) Sennacherib then attacked the west, and while thus engaged a new rebellion began in. Babylonia, in which, naturally enough, Merodach-baladan was ready to participate. It was, however, of very short duration, for Sennacherib entered the land again, and again Merodach-baladan fled. He put his goods, his people, and his gods upon boats, and floated them down the Euphrates to the Persian gulf, and settled on its eastern shores in a part of Elam, whither Sennacherib dared not follow. There in exile he soon died. His career is without a parallel among his people. It was filled with contradictions. No man before him of that race has held power so great for so long a time. He had failed ultimately, but his follow ers would in a later day succeed far beyond his dreams. (Dr. R. W. Rogers, Barnes' Bib. Cyc.)