Merodach-baladan

Merodach-baladan (Babylonian: Marduk-apla-iddina II) was a Chaldean chieftain who twice seized the throne of Babylon and is attested in Assyrian royal annals as a persistent opponent of Sargon II and Sennacherib. He sent envoys with letters and a gift to King Hezekiah of Judah, probably seeking an anti-Assyrian alliance around 703 BC (2 Kings 20:12; Isaiah 39:1). The prophet Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah for showing the delegation his treasury and armory, declaring that these same treasures would one day be carried to Babylon—a prophecy that anticipated the Babylonian exile by more than a century.