Who was king of Babylon when Isaiah lived?

Answer 1

The prophet Isaiah is best known as the author of the Book of Isaiah. However, scholars have confirmed that the Book of Isaiah was really written by two (and possibly three) authors.

The first author, now known as First Isaiah, says that he wrote of events that occurred during the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. Thus, he lived prior to about 687 BCE, when Hezekiah died.

More than a century later, an anonymous author now known as Second Isaiah added further material about the Babylonian Exile. This material continued until the early years of the Return to Jerusalem, beginning around 500 BCE, either by Second Isaiah or a Third Isaiah.

During the lifetime of First Isaiah there was no king in Babylon, as it was under the dominion of Assyria until 625 BCE, when the Babylonians rebelled under Chaldean leadership.

The Babylonian Exile was enforced in 586 BCE by King Nebuchadnezzar II, who was succeeded in about 555 BCE by Nabonidus, the last of the Babylonian kings. The writings of Second Isaiah begin during this period.

Nabonidus was defeated by the Persian, King Cyrus the Great, in 539 BCE. Around 530 BCE, Cyrus gave his son Cambyses the title of king of Babylon, within the Persian Empire, but Cambyses succeeded to the Persian throne a year afterwards. A Babylonian revolt saw Babylon under its own king, Nebuchadnezzar III, from 522 to 520 BCE, and another revolt probably occurred around 514 BCE. This was clearly the time of Second Isaiah.

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