- MERIB-BAAL contender with Baal, (1 Chronicles 8:34; 9:40), elsewhere
called Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 4:4), the son of Jonathan. - MERODACH death; slaughter, the name of a Babylonian God, probably
the planet Mars (Jeremiah 50:2), or it may be another name of Bel, the
guardian divinity of Babylon. This name frequently occurs as a surname to
the kings of Assyria and Babylon. - MERODACH-BALADAN Merodach has given a son, (Isaiah 39:1), “the
hereditary chief of the Chaldeans, a small tribe at that time settled in the
marshes at the mouth of the Euphrates, but in consequence of his conquest
of Babylon afterwards, they became the dominant caste in Babylonia
itself.” One bearing this name sent ambassadors to Hezekiah (B.C. 721).
He is also called Berodach-baladan (2 Kings 20:12; 2 Chronicles 20:31).
(See HEZEKIAH.) - MEROM height, a lake in Northern Palestine through which the Jordan
flows. It was the scene of the third and last great victory gained by Joshua
over the Canaanites (Joshua 11:5-7). It is not again mentioned in Scripture.
Its modern name is Bakrat el-Huleh. “The Ard el-Huleh, the centre of
which the lake occupies, is a nearly level plain of 16 miles in length from
north to south, and its breadth from east to west is from 7 to 8 miles. On
the west it is walled in by the steep and lofty range of the hills of
Kedesh-Naphtali; on the east it is bounded by the lower and more
gradually ascending slopes of Bashan; on the north it is shut in by a line of
hills hummocky and irregular in shape and of no great height, and
stretching across from the mountains of Naphtali to the roots of Mount
Hermon, which towers up at the north-eastern angle of the plain to a
height of 10,000 feet. At its southern extremity the plain is similarly
traversed by elevated and broken ground, through which, by deep and
narrow clefts, the Jordan, after passing through Lake Huleh, makes its
rapid descent to the Sea of Galilee.”
The lake is triangular in form, about 4 1/2 miles in length by 3 1/2 at its
greatest breadth. Its surface is 7 feet above that of the Mediterranean. It is
surrounded by a morass, which is thickly covered with canes and papyrus
reeds, which are impenetrable. Macgregor with his canoe, the Rob Roy,
was the first that ever, in modern times, sailed on its waters. (See
JORDAN.)