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Bible Dictionaries
Merodach
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or 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 Jeremiah 50:2 , but the Bçl of the Apocryphal Bçl and the Dragon ( Isaiah 46:1 , Jeremiah 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.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Merodach'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/m/merodach.html. 1909.
