closer and closer around the helpless capital.”65 This would cover the time when the Chaldeans began to make their character and aims known but before they raised alarms in Judah. This broader time span might encompass the time from the death of Ashurbanipal of Assyria in 627 B.C. to the end of the reign of Jehoiakim in 598 B.C.66 The time must fit when the Lord’s answer would “utterly amaze” the prophet (1:5). This would have been a time prior to the defeat of the Egyptians by Babylon at the Battle