| Evil-Merodach Fausset's Bible Dictionary
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| Son and
successor of Nebuchadnezzar. During the latter's exclusion from men
among beasts, Evil Merodach administered the government. On
Nebuchadnezzar's resuming it at the end of seven years, he heard of his
son's misconduct and that Evil Merodach had exulted in his father's
calamity. He therefore cast Evil Merodach into prison, where the prince
met Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, and became his friend. When Evil Merodach
mounted the throne therefore he brought him out of prison, changed his
prison garments, and set his throne above the throne of the kings with
him in Babylon, and "Jehoiachin did continually eat bread before him all
the days of his life" (Jer_52:31-34).
After a two-year reign, 561-559 B.C., he was murdered by Neriglissar
(Nergal Sharezer), a Babylonian noble (married to his sister), who
seized the crown. Evil Merodach was guilty of lawless government,
according to Berosus, possibly because of his showing greater lenity
than his father.
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| Taken from: Fausset's Bible Dictionary by Andrew Robert Fausset (1821-1910) | |