Israelite prophet to carry out his ministry entirely outside Israel’s homeland. He received his call five years after he was deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE. This tragedy, foreseen by the Prophet Isaiah more than one hundred years earlier (2 Kgs 20:16–18), represented the culmination of a series of historical events. After the horrendous apostasies of Manasseh, the godly king Josiah (640–609 BCE) attempted sweeping religious reforms (2 Kgs 23:1–25), but it was too little and too