MERODACH-BALADAN II (Babylonian Marduk-apal-iddina "Marduk gave me a son [firstborn and] heir"). - King of Babylon, b. before 755 and d. after 700 B.C.; he reigned from 721 to 710 and in 703. He was originally a very 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 which he became the soul of the resistance against Assyrian predominance and the champion of freedom, being a man of great diplomatic skill, energetic and bold, but not equally gifted with military talent. His policy of alliances is well known also from Is. 39, 1-8, a passage identical to II Kings 20, 12-19: legation to Hezekiah, king of Judah (721-693).
He first experienced the Assyrians after the battle of Sapia (731), giving Thegathphalasar III (745-728) a very valuable 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). Exploiting the occasion of Sargon's accession to the throne, he stirred up his first rebellion in 722 and seized the throne of Babylon. When Sargon rushed against the allies, M.-B. did not arrive in time at Dêr, east of the Tigris, and the Elamites alone were unable to deal Sargon a decisive blow. While M.-B. alienated minds from himself, and especially those of the influential priests in the "city of the gods," with a policy too favorable to the Chaldeans and with the confiscation of the property of the pro-Assyrian factions, Sargon had time to consolidate his Empire in Syria and Palestine, in Urartu and in Media, and in 710 he was ready for the assault. The first of his armies, occupying Bit-Alhara and the region of the 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 move him to send an army. Then M.-B., performing penitential rites, 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 took Dâr-Jahin. According to the most probable opinion M.-B., wounded, managed to escape alone, while the city was being sacked 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 tolerated that the Babylonians raise usurpers, who made themselves hated by the people. In the meantime he re-established the old alliances, especially with Elam, and in addition with Arab tribes, even making contact with the west (here the legation to Hezekiah is more probably to be placed); now it was an easy matter for him to drive out the usurper Marduk-zakirum. Against Sennacherib the allies opposed a great army, near Kuta, under Elamite generals, but once again the enterprise failed through a strategic error, and M.-B. took flight. Under the regime of the viceroy Bel-ibni, not very capable, he managed to establish himself again at Bit-Jahin; but at Sennacherib's advance, in 700, "he took the gods from all the land, and from the coffers the bones of his fathers, and his people, and loading them onto ships he set sail (disembarking) at Nagitu-Raqqâ, in Elam, where he died" (Sennacherib). His descendants opposed the Assyrians bitterly, in 694, and it is possible that there is some relation between his family and that of Nabopolassar, founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.