Reading the Bible in Historical Sequence Part 7Muestra

713 BC King Hezekiah falls mortally ill but on his tearful appeal God promises to deliver him and the city confirming this by moving the sun’s shadow backwards. Proud Hezekiah stupidly shows his resources to envoys from an increasingly ambitious Babylon. Isaiah now foresees God using Babylon to punish nations and then the Medes punishing Babylon.

Note Isaiah 39: In 713 BC Marodach-Baladin, the Prince of Babylon, had fled further east to Elam to get away from Assyrian pressure. Evidently it was from there (‘a distant land’) that he sent envoys, soon after Jerusalem’s siege, to ask Hezekiah to join an alliance against Assyria. Hezekiah keenly showed them the full extent of his wealth and armory.