MERODACH-BALADAN II (Babylonian Marduk-apal-iddina «Marduk has given me a son [firstborn and] heir»). — King of Babylon, born before 755 and died after 700 B.C.; he reigned from 721 to 710 and in 703. He was originally an extremely wealthy sheikh of the Bit-Jahin, inhabitants of the Mât tâmi («Land of the Sea»), at the mouths of the Euphrates and the Tigris, one of the five Chaldean tribes (the other four were: Bit-Dakhâri, Bit-Amuhâni, Bit-Ša'alla, Bit-Šilani). For these he became the soul of the resistance against Assyrian domination and the champion of freedom, being a man of great diplomatic skill, energetic and audacious, though not equally gifted in military talent. His policy of alliances is also well known from Is. 39, 1-8, a passage identical with II Reg. 20, 12-19: the embassy to Ezechia, king of Judah (721-693).
He first tested the Assyrians after the battle of Sapia (731), presenting Thegathphalasar III (745-728) with a very substantial tribute and «kissing his feet». In the following years he established an understanding among the various Chaldean and Aramean tribes and secured the help of Ijumbaniğâ, king of Elam (747-718). Taking advantage of Sargon’s accession to the throne, he instigated his first rebellion in 722 and seized the throne of Babylon. When Sargon hurried against the allies, M.-B. did not arrive in time at Dêr, east of the Tigris, and the Elamites alone were unable to inflict a decisive blow on Sargon. While M.-B. was alienating the people from himself, especially the influential priests in the «city of the gods», through a policy too favorable to the Chaldeans and through the confiscation of the property of the Assyrians’ supporters, Sargon had time to consolidate his Empire in Syria and Palestine, in Urartu and in Media, and in 710 he was ready to attack. The first of his armies, occupying Bit-Alhara and the region of Unqâ, cut communications with Elam. The other, by forced marches, crossed the Euphrates near Borsippa, south of Babylon. The rich gifts sent by M.-B. to the king of Elam, Sutur-Nabhunte (717-699), did not induce him to send an army. M.-B. then, performing rites of penance, fled to his native tribe, where he fortified himself at Iqbi-Bel and later at Dâr-Jahin, cutting the dikes and flooding the countryside. Nevertheless, Sargon’s soldiers «flew over the waters like eagles», besieged and captured Dâr-Jahin. According to the most probable opinion, M.-B., wounded, managed to escape alone, while the city was plundered and destroyed.
M.-B. reappeared on the scene after Sargon’s death, in the years 705-703. With great prudence, he did not immediately seize the «vacant» throne (Sennacherib hesitated to take the hands of Bel), but allowed the Babylonians to elevate usurpers, who made themselves hated by the people. Meanwhile, he restored the old alliances, especially with Elam, and also formed new ones with Arab tribes, making contact even with the west (the embassy to Ezechia should probably be placed here); it was now easy for him to expel the usurper Marduk-zakirum. Against Sennacherib, the allies assembled a great army near Kuta, under Elamite generals, but once again the enterprise failed through a strategic error, and M.-B. fled. Under the regime of the viceroy Bel-ibni, a man of little ability, he once again managed to establish himself at Bit-Jahin; but when Sennacherib advanced against him, in 700, he «took from the whole land the gods, and from the chests the bones of his fathers, and his people, and loading them onto ships sailed away (disembarking) at Nagitu-Raqqâ, in Elam, where he died» (Sennacherib). His descendants fiercely opposed the Assyrians in 694, and it is possible that there was some relationship between his family and that of Nabopolassar, founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.