Evil-Merodach - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

EVIL-MERODACH

e-vil-me-ro'-dak; -mer'-o-dak 'ewil merodhakh; Septuagint Eueialmarodek; so B in K, but B in Jeremiah, and A and Q in both places much corrupted:

The name of the son and immediate successor of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon. The Babylonian form of the name is Amelu- Marduk, that is, "man of Marduk." About 30 contract tablets dated in this reign have been found. They show that Evil-merodach reigned for two years and about five months. He is said by Berosus to have conducted his government in an illegal and improper manner, and to have been slain by his sister's brother, Nergalshar-ucur, who then reigned in his stead. Evil- merodach is said in 2 Kings 25:27-30 and in the parallel passage in Jeremiah 52:31-34 to have taken Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from his prison in Babylon, where he seems to have been confined for 37 years, to have clothed him with new garments, to have given him a seat above all the other kings, and to have allowed him to eat at the king's table all the days of his life. It is an undesigned coincidence, that may be worthy of mention, that the first dated tablet from this reign was written on the 26th of Elul, and Jeremiah 52:31 says that Jehoiachin was freed from prison on the 25th of the same month.

R. Dick Wilson

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'EVIL-MERODACH'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.