The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

24 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND THE 0. T.
we have it In the parallel passage Is. XXXIX. 1 in the
form JlN^a-TjlX'li? (with initial tt). We can scarcely be in
339 doubt which of the two readings is the correct form, since
we have also the name of the deity "^Tlip "Merodach" certi-
fied by the Old Testament. The cuneiform inscriptions
place the matter beyond all doubt since in them we find the
name written Mar(u)duk.abal-i ddina i. e. "Merodach
presented a (or the) son"; see Assyr. Babyl. Keilinsch.
p. 129 No. 13*. The original reading can accordingly
have only been "llNlO.
Now the cuneiform records make repeated mention of a
Babylonian king of this name in the epoch which we are
specially considering. First of all, we meet with a Baby-
lonian king Marduk-abal-iddi-na, son of Jakin**, in
an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser II (see the passage above
Vol. I, p. 226), and we see from the list of governors
that he offered homage to the Assyrian monarch in the
year 731 at Sapija. Again we also find Sargon referring
on several occasions to Marduk-abal-iddi-na, son of
Jakin; as, for instance, in the great triumphal inscription
Botta 151. No. 11, line 1; as well as in the annals Botta
65, 3 foil. &c. (fee. About him we learn from Sargon's
inscriptions, in which he is referred-to as § a r m S- 1 K a 1-d i
"king of Chaldaea", that the Great King frequently con-
quered him, and that Sargon, in the 12''' and 13*'' years
of his reign i. e. in the years 710 and 709, undertook a great
* There is another Babylonian king with the name Ramman-
abal-i-di-na-av "Ramm&n bestowed the son"; see Oppert, les inscrip-
tions de Dour-Sarkayan p. 28. The name is of interest from the
circumstance that the third element in it is written phonetically
throughout, contrary to the prevailing usage.
** He is there called sar ti^mtiv "king of the sea".