Merathaim

Merathaim ("double rebellion" or "double bitterness") appears once in Scripture as a symbolic name for Babylonia in Jeremiah's long oracle against the empire that destroyed Jerusalem: "Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 50:21). The name plays on the southern Babylonian region of Marratu near the Persian Gulf marshlands while encoding the prophet's theological assessment — Babylon's "double rebellion" against the Lord would bring "double bitterness" on her own head. The oracle envisions the Medes and Persians executing the divine sentence.