Evil-merodach

Biblical Record

Evil-merodach appears in 2 Kings 25:27–30 and Jeremiah 52:31–34. The two passages are nearly identical. Evil-merodach came to the throne in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of Judah, had been carried captive to Babylon. In the twelfth month of that year he released Jehoiachin from prison. The day is given as the twenty-seventh in 2 Kings and the twenty-fifth in Jeremiah.

Evil-merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. Jehoiachin put off his prison garments and ate before the king for the rest of his life, receiving a daily allowance until the day of his death. Scripture contains no other record of Evil-merodach.

Babylonian sources outside the Bible call this king Amel-Marduk, a name interpreted as "man of Marduk." Marduk was the chief god of Babylon. The element "Evil" in the biblical name is unrelated to the English word "evil." He is known to have been the son of Nebuchadnezzar. He is reported to have been killed by his brother-in-law Neriglissar after a brief reign. Many scholars place his reign at a little over two years in the early 560s BC, though the exact dates vary somewhat among scholars.

Significance Within Scripture

The account of Evil-merodach forms the closing scene of both 2 Kings and Jeremiah. The somber narrative of the fall of Jerusalem and the deportation of Zedekiah ends with the news that a descendant of the house of David is still alive and being treated with honor. For this reason, the scene is often read as evidence that the Davidic covenant had not been broken.

Jehoiachin appears in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 under the name Jechonias. Zerubbabel, who led the rebuilding of the temple after the return from exile, is also recorded as his grandson. The New Testament does not mention Evil-merodach directly.

Interpretation and Issues

• Interpreters differ on how to understand this ending. Some read it as a sign of hope pointing toward the restoration of the Davidic line. Others read it as a restrained conclusion indicating that the exile continues, since the king remains bound to the table of a foreign ruler.
• One Jewish tradition holds that Evil-merodach fell out of favor with his father and was imprisoned alongside Jehoiachin, with whom he became friends. This is a later tradition and does not appear in the biblical text.
• Ration records from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, excavated at Babylon, are known to mention Jehoiachin and his sons by name. These records are therefore frequently cited as background material for the biblical account of Jehoiachin's stay in Babylon.

In the Korean Church

Evil-merodach is rarely the central figure of sermons or Sunday school lessons. He is usually mentioned within the story of Jehoiachin's release. In that context the passage is used to convey a message of grace and restoration—that even in the midst of judgment God preserved the house of David. In Bible studies surveying the period of the Babylonian exile, he is introduced as one of the kings of Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar.