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Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Jul. 5, 2025
Update	: Jul. 5, 2025
Parts	: 13

Synopsis:



Continuing our discussion from part one, as we have seen, as the end of the Jews' prophesied Seventy Years of Captivity was approaching its conclusion in Babylon, God was working behind the scenes to raise up a particular ruler who would liberate them from their Babylonian bondage. This was Cyrus the Great, who became the first "King of Kings" of the new Persian -- or Achaemenid -- Empire, following his victory over the Medes.

If we go back even further in history to about ninety years before Cyrus the Great signed his edict to free the Jews, we learn exactly how we arrive at this particular point. It all began with a ruler by the name of Nabopolassar, who was the founder and first king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. He was the king of Babylon from 626 BC to 605 BC, and was succeeded by his son, Nebuchadnezzar II. Prior to Nabopolassar's rise to power, Babylonia had been ruled for about a century by the Assyrians.

According to one historical source, the turning point in Assyrian dominance occurred around 626 BC with the death of King Assurbanipal, whom the Babylonians called Kandalanu. This was when Nabopolassar's reign began. Possibly being of Chaldean descent, Nabopolassar rose from the position of general in the Assyrian army. He invaded and annexed the Mesopotamian provinces of Assyria, and when Sinsharishkun -- the last King of Assyria -- tried to cut off his return and threatened Babylon, Nabopolassar received help from the Manda, who were the nomadic tribes of Kurdistan. Another source states that the Manda were actually the Medes. They were in fact the first to unify the nation as a political entity under their leader, Cyaxares, in the seventh century BC. In fact, Cyaxares was the first and only king of the Medes while Media remained a solitary empire, prior to its absorption by Persia.

As I just said, Cyaxares then joined his forces with the Babylonians under Nabopolassar to defeat the Assyrians, who had been oppressing the Medes. The Assyrian defeat resulted in the destruction of Nineveh. The exact date of Nineveh's destruction is a small source of debate. Some scholars place it at the beginning of Nabopolassar's reign in 625 BC, while others place it towards the very end of his reign in 606 BC. The year 612 BC seems to be a commonly agreed upon date. But what is certain, is that by the time Nebuchadnezzar ascended to the throne of his father, Assyria had fallen. One very interesting side note is that within archeological circles, the ruins of Nineveh are believed to have been found in the north of Iraq near the bank of the Tigris River, opposite the modern-day city of Mosul.

Just as the Scriptures prophesy the judgment and fall of a number of different empires and nations within its pages, the Assyrian Empire was no exception. In fact, a number of God's different Prophets mention the issues, including the Prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Nahum and Zephaniah, as we see by the following group of Bible verses:

"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness."


"Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man . . . Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled."


"Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee? . . . Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?"


"And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness."


Regarding Cyaxares, the sole king of the Medes, there are some scholars who have suggested that he may possibly have been the Darius the Mede who is mentioned in the following verses. However, this remains a point of debate:

"But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince. Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him."


Once the Assyria Empire had fallen, King Nebuchadnezzar next turned his attention to Egypt which had already established its beachhead in Carchemish, Syria. When proud Pharaoh Necho attempted to cross the Euphrates River to try to grab more of the former Assyrian Empire, he met with stiff resistance from Nebuchadnezzar who chased him all the way back to the borders of Egypt. This was around the year 604 BC. Upon hearing of his father's death, Nebuchadnezzar stopped his Egyptian campaign, and returned to Babylon to begin his forty-three year reign.

However, as we have already discussed, it wasn't long before Nebuchadnezzar II was forced to return to Judah to put down the rebellion which had been instigated by King Jehoiakim who foolishly refused to pay Babylonian tribute. When King Hophra -- who had succeeded Pharaoh Necho II to the Egyptian throne in about 589 BC -- secretly tried to unite all of the Syrian States in a conspiracy against Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar once again found the need to go to Judah. Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon had already entered into the confederacy; and going against Jeremiah's warnings, King Zedekiah broke his oath of allegiance to Babylon and joined the league as well. This eventually resulted in the fall of Jerusalem in about 587 BC during the third and final Babylonian siege.

Having defeated and destroyed Jerusalem and carried the Jews captive to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar next waged war against Tyre, which was a Phoenician island nation. As I explain in my series "Satan: King of Tyrus, King of Empires", this was likewise a judgment from the Lord because Tyre had ridiculed Jerusalem when it fell to the Babylonian king. Consider the following group of verses:

"Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock . . . For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people."


Being as Nebuchadnezzar II could not reach the island nation due to his lack of a marine fleet, his thirteen year campaign ended in about 572 BC with only a partial victory. Therefore, a few years later, in approximately 567 BC, he invaded Egypt and let his wrath be felt there as he plundered her of her riches in fulfillment of the words of the Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as we see by the following Bible verses:

"The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north. The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him: And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD."


"Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army."


Following the conclusion of King Nebuchadnezzar II's reign in 562 BC, the Babylonian Empire had four more kings before being taken over by the Medes and the Persians. The first was Evil-Merodach, who became king in approximately 561-562 BC. Historically, he is known as Amel-Marduk, or as Awil-Marduk. He was responsible for releasing Jewish king Jehoiachin from prison after he had been in captivity for thirty-seven years. Even though Zedekiah -- the final rebellious king of Israel before the Babylonian invasion -- and his royal family were destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar, in His foresight, the Lord protected the royal blood of the tribe of Judah through the captivity of Jehoiachin and his family in Babylon, as I point out in other articles as well. Consider the following group of Bible verses:

"And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon; And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life."


After not even two years sitting on the Babylonian throne, King Evil-Merodach was overthrown and assassinated by his wicked brother-in-law, Neriglissar -- or Nergal-sar-usur -- in the year 560 BC. Although he was not directly related to Nebuchadnezzar II or to Evil-Merodach -- he was a general in Nebuchadnezzar's army -- he did marry one of Nebuchadnezzar II's daughters. But only four years later in 556 BC, he died and was thus succeeded by his young son, Labashi-Marduk, who reigned for only one to three months before he too was also assassinated in a coup.

The conspirators who were involved in the royal coup then proclaimed Nabonidus -- or Nabu-na'id -- as the new king of Babylon. One source states that Nabonidus was the final king of Babylon and ruled from about 556 BC to 539 BC when Cyrus the Great became the first king of the Medo-Persian Empire. However, I came across yet another source which states that Belshazzar succeeded Nabonidus to the throne towards the end of Nabonidus' reign making him the final king. As I dug even deeper into this, I discovered that not only was Belshazzar the son of Nabonidus and the crown prince, but he had also most likely orchestrated the murder of Labashi-Marduk, who had been his father's predecessor.

Furthermore, while Nabonidus was away for a period of about ten years being engaged in war campaigns, and likewise in a self-imposed exile in Arabia, his son Belshazzar served as regent in Babylon in his father's stead. While such sources say that Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, the Bible says that he was the son of Nebuchadnezzar II. However, it should be noted that the Hebrew word "ab" doesn't always mean one's physical father. It is also applied to one's forefathers or predecessors. As the son of Nabonidus, it would thus at very best make Belshazzar Nebuchadnezzar II's grandson. But even that's debatable because no historical evidence exists which points to Nabonidus belonging to Nebuchadnezzar II's family. One theory suggests that similar to Neriglissar, he may have married one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters. Having said that, the interpretation of the following verse -- which is being spoken to Belshazzar -- is open to debate:

"There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;"


Just as the Lord had used Nebuchadnezzar -- "the mighty one of the heathen" as the Prophet Ezekiel referred to him -- as His sword to punish Israel and other nations, He then used the Medes and the Persians to likewise punish Babylon for her many sins in similar fashion. Again the Prophets spoke very clearly regarding these events, as we see by the following sample Bible verses:

"Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."


"A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease . . . And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground."


Please note that in the previous verses, Elam is an ancient name for Persia, which, as we have already seen, is in our modern day known as Iran. Thus, the previous verses are in fact describing how the dual empire of Medo-Persia overcame the Babylonians and became the new dominant empire. Isaiah was not alone in prophesying the demise of the Babylonians. The Prophet Jeremiah also warned of the coming conquest of Babylon once the Lord had removed His sword from the hand of the Babylonian king, and placed it in the hands of the Medes and the Persians. Consider the following verses as proof of this:

"And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations."


"The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast."


"Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks. For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain. And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD."


"Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon."


"Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple . . . Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant."


Turning to the Book of Daniel, we also find the frightful warning which the Lord gave to Babylonian king Belshazzar in the fifth chapter. While Nebuchadnezzar II had greatly sinned by stealing the sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem, and placed them in his own temple in Babylon, Belshazzar sinned even more greatly when he ordered the sacred vessels be brought, so that he and his wives and his concubines could drink wine out of them. Belshazzar was so very frightened, that he ordered that someone be called who could interpret the words which had been seen on the wall.

But none of Belshazzar's astrologers, soothsayers or wise men could interpret what the king had seen. Finally, the queen brought to the king's attention that a wise man by the name of Daniel had been brought into the kingdom by his father, Nebuchadnezzar. Let me mention that in Daniel chapter five, Belshazzar is in fact addressed as the king, and Nebuchadnezzar II is referred to several times as his father, both by the queen, as well as by Daniel. In the first verse below, the queen is talking to Belshazzar. In the second verse, Belshazzar is talking to Daniel:

"There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;"


"And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom."


After an exchange of words between Belshazzar and Daniel, in which Daniel showed no interest in accepting the king's gifts, the Prophet then explained to the king how God had blessed his father with greatness and wealth, but he had refused to humble himself due to his pride. After that, it got very serious in the royal court as Daniel informed the king that he too was guilty, just like his father had been, because he knew what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar II, and yet here he was drinking out of the holy vessels which had been stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. And then Daniel let Belshazzar have it with both barrels with these words:

"And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."


Well, God's anger against the king must have been very great; because we are next told that His righteous judgment against Belshazzar was very quick, and he was slain that very night. Thus, Darius the Mede took over the Babylonian Empire, and so transitioned it into the Medo-Persian Empire. Consider these two Bible verses:

"In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old."


Regardless of whose actual biological son he was, the Bible clearly indicates that Belshazzar was indeed in power when Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, following the famous "Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin" writing on the palace wall. Now considering that Daniel was still a young boy when he had been taken to Babylon in 606 BC -- that is to say, during the third year of the reign of Jewish king Jehoiakim -- and considering that Belshazzar was slain in about 539 BC -- or about sixty-seven years later -- Daniel must have been at least in his seventies by the time Babylon fell to the Medes.

At the time that Belshazzar had been slain, Nabonidus -- who by this time had returned to Babylon from his self-imposed exile in Arabia -- had gone to the strategic riverside city of Opis, which was located about fifty miles to the north of Babylon on the Tigris River. His goal was to fight against Cyrus the Great. The reason why the city was so strategically important and needed to be defended is because it was located at one end of the Median Wall which Nebuchadnezzar had built a few decades earlier. Once Cyrus' forces breached that wall, it would be an open way to Babylon itself.

Cyrus had already subdued the Medes, and so he had begun to stir up trouble against the Babylonians. Well, upon losing the important battle at Opis, it is said that Nabonidus fled back to Babylon where he was soon captured. While Belshazzar his son had been killed during the takeover of Babylon, his own life may have been spared, and it is said that he was allowed to go to the province of Carmania, where he may have lived in exile up until the reign of Darius the Great. With the victory at Carmania, Cyrus the Great was soon declared the king of Babylonia, and all of its territories, when he entered Babylon.

If you are sharp-eyed, you may have possibly noticed that while Daniel 5:31 states that "Darius the Median took the kingdom" on the night that Belshazzar was slain -- that is to say, in 539 BC -- I just stated that after defeating Nabonidus at the Battle of Opis, not long after that, Cyrus the Great entered Babylon and was proclaimed the new king of Babylonia. So what is going on here? Was it Darius the Mede, or was it Cyrus the Great? Actually, it is not as complicated as you think. A minute ago I informed you that by this time, Cyrus had ALREADY subdued the Medes, and he was in charge. In short, the Medes were fighting along side the Persians, and when Darius the Mede took Babylon, he did so on behalf of Cyrus the Great. Furthermore, according to Easton's Bible Dictionary, Darius the Mede served as the viceroy of Babylon for a period of two years, before Cyrus actually arrived there and was declared king of Babylonia. A viceroy is a ruler who exercises authority on behalf of a sovereign. Following is some additional information that we find in Easton's Bible Dictionary:

----- Begin Quote -----

"Cyrus, (Heb. Ko'resh) . . . was the son of Cambyses, the prince of Persia, and was born about B.C. 599 In the year B.C. 559 he became king of Persia, the kingdom of Media being added to it partly by conquest. Cyrus was a great military leader, bent on universal conquest. Babylon fell before his army, (B.C. 538), on the night of Belshazzar's feast, and then the ancient dominion of Assyria was also added to his empire. Hitherto the great kings of the earth had only oppressed the Jews. Cyrus was to them as a "shepherd". God employed him in doing service to his ancient people. He may possibly have gained, through contact with the Jews, some knowledge of their religion. The 'first year of Cyrus' is not the year of his elevation to power over the Medes, nor over the Persians, nor the year of the fall of Babylon, but the year succeeding the two years during which 'Darius the Mede' was viceroy in Babylon after its fall. At this time only, (B.C. 536), Cyrus became actual king over Palestine, which became a part of his Babylonian empire."

"The edict of Cyrus for the rebuilding of Jerusalem marked a great epoch in the history of the Jewish people. This decree was discovered "at Achmetha, ("Ecbatana"), in the palace that is in the province of the Medes". A chronicle drawn up just after the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus, gives the history of the reign of Nabonidus (Nabunahid), the last king of Babylon, and of the fall of the Babylonian empire. In B.C. 538 there was a revolt in Southern Babylonia, while the army of Cyrus entered the country from the north. In June the Babylonian army was completely defeated at Opis, and immediately afterwards Sippara opened its gates to the conqueror. Gobryas (Ugbaru), the governor of Kurdistan, was then sent to Babylon, which surrendered "without fighting," and the daily services in the temples continued without a break."

"In October, Cyrus himself arrived, and proclaimed a general amnesty, which was communicated by Gobryas to "all the province of Babylon," of which he had been made governor. Meanwhile, Nabonidus, who had concealed himself, was captured, but treated honourably; and when his wife died, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, conducted the funeral. Cyrus now assumed the title of 'king of Babylon,' claimed to be the descendant of the ancient kings, and made rich offerings to the temples. At the same time he allowed the foreign populations who had been deported to Babylonia to return to their old homes, carrying with them the images of their gods. Among these populations were the Jews, who, as they had no images, took with them the sacred vessels of the temple."

----- End Of Quote -----

Adding to the above information, it is believed among some Bible scholars that the aforementioned Darius the Mede is the same Darius who is mentioned in Daniel 6 where we read the account of how the jealous people in Darius' court came together and conspired against Daniel, so that Darius had him thrown into the lions' den, where he suffered no harm. For the sake of transparency, I should also mention that in the secular world, there is an ongoing debate regarding whether or not Darius the Mede ever existed at all. Some suggest that he is the product of literary fiction. This claim is based on the argument that there is no there's no space in the historical timeline for him between the two rulers who have been historically verified. That is to say, Belshazzar and Cyrus the Great. Thus, as a Christian, you need to decide which source you choose to believe: God's Word -- meaning the Bible -- or man's word.

Putting all of this information together then, what we see is that, while it was indeed Darius who "took the kingdom" from Belshazzar, as I said earlier, this does not mean that he was the overall king of the Medo-Persian empire at that time. Cyrus the Great and Darius the Mede separately ruled their kingdoms for a while. However, ultimately, it was Cyrus the Great who gained the upper hand. So to reiterate this key point, at the time Darius the Mede took Babylon, he was ALREADY serving under Cyrus the Great and the now-united Medo-Persian Empire, as viceroy of Babylon, and NOT as king. This expansion of the Medo-Persian Empire, and the fact that Cyrus and the Persians would become dominant in it, is also mentioned in Daniel chapter eight, where Medo-Persia is "a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last", as we see by the following group of Bible verses:

"Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great . . . The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia."


Thus from all of these verses, and from all of the other info I have shared with you thus far, we indeed see how the Medes and the Persians served as the sword of the Lord in the conquest of the once mighty Babylonian Empire.

Please go to part three for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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