The Conquest of Babylon

 

God's command to Cyrus the Great:  "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd and he will perform all My desire.'  And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' and of the temple, 'your foundation will be laid.'  I have aroused him in righteousness; he will build My city, and will let My exiles go free."

The Medes and the Persians emigrated from the great plains of Russia in the 9th century BC. Shortly after 700 BC, the Persians took control of the city of Anshan.

Cyrus the Great was born about 600 BC, the son of a Persian king and a Median princess. Cyrus ascended the throne of the tiny state of Anshan in 559 BC to begin a reign that lasted 30 years.


In 540 BC, Cyrus set his sights on the conquest of Babylon. During that period, Babylonian morale was at a low ebb. King Nabonidus was more interested in the study of foreign religions and history than in government. Nabonidus took a ten year hiatus in Arabia and left his son Belshazzar at the helm. He returned in 543 BC with the hopes of winning back the favour of his subjects and the priests who preferred a monarch that restricted himself to the established religion of Babylon. Although he brought all the idols from the surrounding cities into Babylon and celebrated the New Year's feast, he was unable to win the approval of his people.


Cyrus was able to convince Gubara, a Median governor, to defect to the Persian side. (The Medes had been allies of the Babylonians since the two defeated Assyria in 612 BC.) After taking the cities of Opis and Sippar, they moved towards Babylon. The throne city was dissected by the Euphrates River and its tributary canals. The dry season coupled with an annual shortage of precipitation caused the river to reach its lowest level in years. Furthermore, this was the time of a great Babylonian festival when the entire city of Babylon was accustomed to revelling all night long.


That night, while the inebriated Babylonians celebrated, Gubara diverted the flow of the Euphrates and entered Babylon's impregnable walls through a water channel. On October 12, 539 BC, Gubara captured Babylon without a battle. On October 29, he opened the city’s gates and welcomed his benefactor, Cyrus, king of Persia. Cyrus entered Babylon peacefully and was hailed by its inhabitants as a liberator. Belshazzar was slain, Nabonidus exiled, and Gubara, a.k.a. Darius the Mede, was made king of Babylon to act as a vassal under Cyrus the Great.


In 538 BC, Cyrus released Judeans from their captivity in Babylon. His proclamation was recorded by Ezra the scribe:


“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
‘Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.'"


Babylon's seventy year mandate had expired and an assembly of 42,360 survivors of the Babylonian captivity, accompanied by their servants, arrived in Judah in April, 537 BC, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, to rebuild their temple.