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The same name traced across the biblical canon and the Second Temple texts, side by side.
Merodach-baladan (King living at the time of Divided Monarchy)
A Chaldean chief who seized Babylon's throne and fought Assyria in the late eighth century BC. He sent envoys to Hezekiah when the king got well, probably looking for an ally, and Hezekiah showed them everything in his treasury, which brought Isaiah's warning of exile to Babylon. Assyrian records of Sargon II and Sennacherib know him as Marduk-apla-iddina II.
A Chaldean chief who seized Babylon's throne and fought Assyria in the late eighth century BC. He sent envoys to Hezekiah when the king got well, probably looking for an ally, and Hezekiah showed them everything in his treasury, which brought Isaiah's warning of exile to Babylon. Assyrian records of Sargon II and Sennacherib know him as Marduk-apla-iddina II.
Merodach-baladan, also spelled Berodach-baladan, was a Chaldean chieftain who seized the throne of Babylon and led resistance against Assyrian domination in the late eighth century BC. He sent envoys to congratulate King Hezekiah of Judah on his recovery from illness, ostensibly to form an anti-Assyrian alliance, and Hezekiah unwisely showed them the full contents of his treasury, prompting Isaiah's warning of a coming Babylonian exile (Isaiah 39:1-7; 2 Kings 20:12-19). Assyrian royal inscriptions of Sargon II and Sennacherib independently record his repeated seizures of the Babylonian throne and his eventual defeat, confirming him as a genuine historical figure known outside the Bible as Marduk-apla-iddina II.
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- Isaiah 39:1
