Evil-Merodach and the Deuteronomist 181 rather than emphasizing continuity with this dynasty Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar (who was apparently the real power behind the throne) strove to portray themselves as heirs to the line of Assyrian kings crushed by Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar (21). Finally, in 539 BCE Cyrus annihilated the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, once briefly ruled by Evil-Merodach, and sidelined the native Mesopo- tamian elite, of which Evil-Merodach had been a part, becoming the first non-assimilated foreigner ever to control the region and for the first time making it “a province in a large empire whose center was outside the borders of Mesopotamia” (22). Evil-Merodach’s status as a virtual Mr. Nobody looms large when it comes to the reception of 2 Kgs 25,27-30 by different groups of listeners/readers. Post-560 BCE audiences were increasingly unlikely to attach any significance to Jehoiachin’s release and exaltation, because the successors of the king under whom it happened were increasingly unlikely to take heed of his policies. Even if some or all of them chose to treat Davidides favorably, they would have done so for the reasons of their own, not because of the precedent set by Evil- Merodach (23). Accordingly, at no point after his downfall could 2 Kgs 25,27-30 be expected to shore up the concept of an eternal Davidic dynasty by convincing the audience that YHWH’s promise to David articulated by Nathan in 2 Samuel 7 is being fulfilled or will eventually be fulfilled. From the standpoint of any post-560 BCE listener or reader, the developments recounted by the four concluding verses of the Former Prophets were either irrelevant or of negligible importance with regard to the prospects of Davidic restoration. Moreover, the fragment was likely to pour cold water on any expectations of such a restoration by reminding the audience that Jehoiachin’s release and exaltation had had no lasting consequences, especially for Israel as a (21) Ibid., 104. (22) Ibid., 105. (23) His move would not be even seen as essential for the physical survival of the Davidic line. Not only is there no indication in Kings or elsewhere that the family had been in danger of extinction, but the fact that Jehoiachin, exiled at the age of eighteen (2 Kgs 24,8) or eight (2 Chr 36,9) and released by Evil-Merodach almost forty years later (2 Kgs 25,27), had eight sons (1 Chr 3,17-18), clearly indicates that this was not an issue. Babylonian records of substantial allocations of oil to Jehoiachin, his sons, and courtiers confirm as much: see E.F. WEIDNER, “Jojachin, König von Juda, in Babylonischen Keilschrifttexten”, Mélanges Syriens offerts à Monsieur René Dussaud (ed. F. CUMONT et al.) (Paris 1939) II, 923-935. I will argue further that 2 Kgs 25,30 plausibly reads as an acknow- ledgment of these allocations.