2 Kings 20:12

At that time Berodachbaladan,.... He is called Merodachbaladan, Isaiah 39:1, so here in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; [See comments on Isaiah 39:1]; and by Metasthenes (z) his father

At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

Berodach-baladan, called Merodach-baladan, , whose name Josephus found in that famous Chaldean historian, Berosus. He seems to have been the king of Assyria’ s viceroy in Babylon; and upon that terrible slaughter of one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian host, and the death of Sennacherib, and the differences among his sons, to have usurped an absolute sovereignty over Babylon; and either himself or his son destroyed the Assyrian monarchy, and translated the empire to Babylon. Sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah; partly for the reasons mentioned ; and partly to assure himself of the friendship and assistance of Hezekiah against the Assyrians, their common, and as yet powerful, enemy.

2 Kings 20:12 At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.Ver. 12. At that time Berodach-baladan.] Baladan signifieth a lordless or masterless man, saith Pagnine. This Berodach - or Merodach - Baladan is thought to be the first Babylonian monarch, after that he had first rebelled against Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, and then afterwards slain him. Hence we read no more in Scripture of the kings of Assyria, but of Babylon. Sent letters with a present.] A rich and royal one, no doubt, according to the state of him who sent it, but whether comparable to that of King Ferdinand, sent to Solyman the Turk, I cannot tell - viz., a wonderful globe of silver of most rare and curious device, daily expressing the hourly passing of the time and the motions of the planets, the change and full of the moon, &c., ever moving by certain wheels and weights curiously conveyed within the same, and exactly keeping due time and motion. Such a present would have been most welcome to good Hezekiah, especially if he were a mathematician, as the Rabbis make him, telling us that he restored the year by the intercalation of a day every third year, in the month Adar, which answereth to our February. Baladan, sine domino. Turk. Hist., 713.

THE EMBASSY OP -BALADAN (2 Kings 20:12-19). (12) At that time Berodach-baladan.—As to the name, Berodach is a transcriber’s error for Merodach (Jeremiah 1:2). Some MSS. of Kings, and the LXX., Syriac, and Arabic, as well as Isaiah 39:1, and the Talmud, spell the name with m, a letter easily confused with b in Hebrew. Above all, the cuneiform inscriptions present Marduk (or, Maruduk)-abla-iddina (“Me-rodaeh gave a son”). A king of this name occupied the throne of Chaldea at intervals, during the reigns of the four Assyrian sovereigns Tiglath Pileser, Shalma-neser, Sargon, and Sennacherib. He is called in the inscriptions “son of Yβkin,” an expression which, like “Jehu son of Omri,” is territorial rather than genealogical. Bξt- Yβkin was the name of the tribal domain of the “sons of Yβkin,” just as Bξt-Humria was that of the territory of which Jehu was king. He is further designated as king of “the land of the sea” (mβt tihβmtim), i.e., the country at the head of the Persian Gulf, and of “the land of Chaldea” (mβt Kaldi). He did homage to Tiglath Pileser in 731 B.C. In the first year of Sargon, Merodach-baladan established himself as king of Babylon, and was eventually recognised as such by the Assyrian sovereign. He reigned about twelve years contemporaneously with Sargon, who in 710 and 709 B.C. defeated and captured him, and burnt his stronghold Dϋr-Yβkin. On the death of Sargon, Merodach-baladan once more gained possession of the throne of Babylon; and perhaps it was at this time (so Schrader) that he sent his famous embassy to seek the alliance of Hezekiah and other western princes. After a brief reign of six months, he was defeated by Sennacherib, and driven back to his old refuge in the morasses of South Chaldea. Belibus was made Assyrian viceroy of Babylon. These events belong to the beginning of Sennacherib’s reign. (He says, ina ris sarrutiya, “in the beginning of my sovereignty.”) There was yet another outbreak before Merodach-bala-dan was finally disheartened; and later still Esarhaddon mentions that he slew Nabu-zir-napisti-sutesir, son of Mardak-abla-iddina, and made his brother Na’id-Maruduk king of “the land of the sea” in his stead. Son of Baladan.—The name of Merodach-baladan’s father is not mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions. He had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.—The ostensible business of the embassy was to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery, and to inquire about the sign that had been vouchsafed him (sec 2 Chronicles 32:31, and Note); but the Assyrian records make it pretty clear that the real object was to ascertain the extent of Hezekiah’s resources, and to secure his alliance against the common enemy.

Verse 12. At that time Berodach-baladan] He is called Merodach-Baladan, Isaiah 39:1, and by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and by several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; and also by the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. The true reading seems to be Merodach; the מ mem and ב beth might be easily interchanged, and so produce the mistake. Sent letters and a present] It appears that there was friendship between the king of Babylon and Hezekiah, when the latter and the Assyrians were engaged in a destructive war. The king of Babylon had not only heard of his sickness, but he had heard of the miracle; as we learn from 2 Chronicles 32:31.

12–21. An embassy to Hezekiah from the king of Babylon. Isaiah’s message to Hezekiah. Death of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:25-33; Isaiah 39:1-8) 12. Berodach-baladan] The first part of the name is given as Merodach in Isaiah. This is the more correct form, but the interchange of the two labials is very easily made. This king of Babylon is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions, as overthrown by Sargon the father of Sennacherib. He is said in the canon to have reigned 12 years, while Polyhistor gives him a brief reign of six months. It seems probable that both are correct. After the defeat by Sargon, at which time he had been king 12 years, he was for some years an exile, but afterwards finding means to recover his kingdom, he kept the power for a very brief space. Whether his embassy to Hezekiah is to be assigned to the longer or the shorter time of his kingship depends upon the date in Hezekiah’s life at which his sickness occurred. If, as some have conjectured, that event was before Sennacherib’s invasion the embassy must have been before Merodach’s expulsion: if Hezekiah’s disease followed after Sennacherib’s invasion, then the Babylonian embassy must be placed in the brief six months’ rule which Merodach had after his return. The date of Merodach’s expulsion is placed b.c. 709, his return to the throne b.c. 702. and a present] This is in the original, minchah, a present intended to procure alliance and aid. for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick] And probably had heard also of the wondrous sign which attended on his recovery. Whether the announcement of such a marvel would create special interest in Babylon the land of star-worship and star-study we can only conjecture. No doubt the congratulation on Hezekiah’s recovery was only used as a pretext for an embassy which should gain over Judah, if possible, to the side of Babylon.

Berodach-baladan - The correct form of this name, Merodach-baladan, is given in Isaiah Isaiah 39:1.

THE EMBASSY, AND THE OF THE , 2 Kings 20:12-19. 12. At that time — Soon after his recovery.