in Fortification, is that part of a parapet which is terminated by two embrasures of a battery. MERNs, Mearns, or Kincardineshire, a county of Scotland. See Kincardineshire.

MERODACH was an ancient king of Babylon, who was placed among the gods, and worshipped by the Babylonians. Jeremiah (chap. I. 2.), speaking of the ruin of Babylon, says, "Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces." We find certain kings of Babylon, in whose names that of Merodach is contained: for example, Evil-merodach and Merodach-baladan. Evil-merodach was the son of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, and had for his successor the wicked Belshazzar. Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan king of Babylon, having heard that Hezekiah had been cured miraculously (Isa. xxxix.), and that the sun had gone backwards to give him an assurance of his recovery, sent him presents, and made him compliments upon the recovery of his health. Ptolemy calls him Mardoc-empadus; and says, that he began to reign at Babylon 26 years after the beginning of the era of Nabonassar, that is, in the year of the world 2283.