In these chapters, God turned Isaiah's focus from Israel to Judah. Hezekiah, a good king, was in power in Judah when Israel was besieged by Assyria. But in the 100 years that followed, Judah had only one other "good" king (Josiah). This decline in the character of leadership was apparently indicative of the character of the nation, and God would pronounce judgement on them as well, in the form of the Babylonian captivity. This took place in three waves of deportation, beginning in 597 BC and ending in 605 BC. So by virtue of their "good" leadership, Judah survived as a nation roughly 150 years longer than the northern kingdom, depending on whether you count from the beginnings of the wars or the ends. In today's readings, Isaiah discusses the eventual ruin of Judah but also the promise of national restoration, which could refer to the Jews' return to Jerusalem 70 years after the Babylonian captivity to re-establish their kingdom, or to the restoration spoken of in Revelation.
Tomorrow's reading: 2 Kings 16:19-20, 2 Chron. 28:26-27, Isa. 13:1-16:14
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