Amal-Marduk

Evil-Merodach, King of Babylon
predecessor	Nebuchadnezzar II
successor	Neriglissar
reign	? BC
birth	? BC
death	? BC
spouse	?
father	?
mother	?

Amal-Marduk, Amel-Marduk, Awil-Marduk, Evil-Marduk, Evil-Merodach (Hebrew: אֱוִיל מְרֹדַךְ, ʾÉwīl Mərōḏaḵ), Evilmaluruchus (Greek: Ενιλμαλουρουχος) or Evilmerodachus (Greek: Ενειλμαραδουχος) reigned as king of Babylon 562-560 BC. He was the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar II before being murdered and succeeded by Neriglissar.

Evil-Merodach reigned a mere two years (562-560 B.C.) before being murdered by his brother-in-law, who then took the throne.

The prophet Daniel probably influenced Evil-Merodach, who was then kind to the prisoner Jehoiachin, who had held in Babylon for 37 years until Evil-Merodach released him.

In other respects Evil-Merodach was a brutal and lustful king who "governed public affairs in an illegal and improper manner".

Etymology

First we must note that the name literally translates as a "man of Marduk", or "Marduk's man".

But when we transliterate from Hebrew (אֱוִיל מְרֹדַךְ) into English, it could be written phonetically as: ʾÉwīl Mərōḏaḵ.

Yet when transliterating the Greek (Ενειλμαραδουχος) Enil Mardadoukos, the form visually triggers the somewhat Greek dabbling English reader to see the 'Ενειλ' prefix as 'evil' which is then added to the obvious word μαραδουχος for Marduk: hence the conjunction Evil-Marduk or Evil-Merodach. When the English reader returns to the Hebrew transliteration of ʾÉwīl Mərōḏaḵ, the problem is compounded.

When the general nature of his reign and life is considered in-the-which "he governed public affairs in an illegal and improper manner", the English obviously flawed transliteration becomes a deliberate reduplication into the saterical form of 'Evil' and 'Marduk' to commonly write Evil-Merodach or Evil-Marduk.