2 Kings 20:12

Berodach-baladan. This should be written Merodach-baladan as in Isa. 39:1. This king has been identified with the pugnacious Marduk-apal-iddina, who was king of Babylon from 721 to 709, according to Ptolemy’s Canon. He held Babylon again for a short period in 703. He was a sore thorn in the flesh of the Assyrians, presenting a constant challenge to their control of Babylonia. At the time of Sennacherib’s campaign in Hezekiah’s 14th year and the latter’s illness, Merodach-baladan was, according to the chronology of the kings employed in this commentary, a king in exile, seeking for allies who were also opposed to Assyria and who might be of assistance to him against Assyria. Even though deposed, he could properly be called “king of Babylon” by those who still regarded him as the rightful but dispossessed ruler. Hezekiah evidently so recognized him.

Son of Baladan. Assyrian inscriptions call him the son of Yakin, a king of the 9th century, each of whose descendants referred to himself as “son of Yakin.” Son probably stands for descendant as in the Assyrian inscriptions, which call Jehu the “son of Omri.” In Merodach-baladan’s ancestry there was probably a Baladan as well as a Yakin.

Sent letters. Babylonian astronomers noticed that this wonderful sundial miracle had occurred (see 2 Chron. 32:31). When Merodach-baladan heard why it had happened, he sent envoys to Jerusalem to congratulate Hezekiah and to learn more about the God who could perform such miracles (see PK 344). These ambassadors also may have taken the occasion to congratulate Hezekiah on his courageous resistance against Assyria. Merodach-baladan may have been seeking, at the same time, a formal alliance with Hezekiah against the common enemy.