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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Merodach
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MERODACH.—The name of the city-god of Babylon, worshipped, after the establishment of Babylon as capital of the Babylonian Empire, as chief god of Babylonia. The Babylonian name was Marduk, older form Maruduk. He gradually absorbed the attributes of other gods once supreme through the influence of their city seats of worship, particularly Ellil the old Bçl, or lord supreme of Nippur. Hence he was in later times the Bçl of Babylonia. Merodach is a Hebraized form occurring only in Jer_50:2, but the Bçl of the Apocryphal Bçl and the Dragon (Isa_46:1, Jer_51:44) is the same deity. Nebuchadnezzar was specially devoted to his worship, but the Assyrians reverenced him no less; and even Cyrus, on his conquest of Babylon, treated him with the deepest respect. The name occurs in many Babylonian proper names, and appears in the Bible in Merodach-baladan and Evil-merodach, and probably in Mordecai.
C. H. W. Johns.