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Old 05-13-2008, 05:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wannabee View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by North Jersey Baptist View Post
I wonder whether a parallel an be drawn between Nebuchadnezzer's confession and Nineveh's repentance in Jonah? Interesting.
I'm not sure what you could mean here. Maybe I misunderstood. But if this is pointing out a possible relationship in time and location, the two won't go together. I might get a few details wrong here, but overall the record is pretty close. And the spelling of names may be off too.
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon (the Chaldeans). Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. The chronology of power lied in Assyria, Babylon and then the Persians and the Medes before Alexander the Great invaded the region (Wasn't it Xerxes I, the Persian, to set out to destroy Athens and was met by the 300 Spartans at Battle of Thermopylae? That would have been about 480 B.C.).
In the late 800s Shalmanezer (sp?) III was the king. Jehu bowed down to him and swore Israel's fealty to Assyria, but Judah did not. Shortly after this would have been the time of Jonah, around 790. Then, in the late 700s Tiglath Peneser came against Judah after King Uzziah died (735). It is speculated that Nineveh's repentance accounts for her relative silence during the first half of the 700s. Nebuchadnezzar wasn't until later, obviously.

Well, it goes something like that. Perhaps our resident historians can correct my mistakes. The point is, the repentance of Nineveh and Nebuchadnezzar are not related in location or time.
I was looking at the larger picture, the fact that two heathen kings repented in the face of judgment (one realized, the other impending). It displays God's grace even to gentiles.
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