SATAN, KING OF BABYLON

The identification of Lucifer with Satan in Isaiah 13-14 is complicated by the fact that those chapters claim to discuss not the devil, but "the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see" (Isaiah 13:1). Lucifer is mentioned in Isaiah 14:12, in the middle of a section that begins, "Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon" (Isaiah 14:4). while some have sought to reconcile this inconsistency by attributing dual meaning to Isaiah's words, there is a simpler answer to this seeming dilemma: Satan was, in fact, the god Marduk, who was the real king of Babylon. That is, Isaiah was identifying Satan with the pagan god Marduk. . . . Babylon, too, had its spiritual king, who similarly goes by two different names: He is often called Bel, "lord," which corresponds to the Canaanite Baal, but his proper name is Marduk. Marduk was considered to be the real king of Babylon. It was he who chose a mortal king to represent him. In one inscription, we read that Marduk gives the sceptre to the king who reveres him.