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Daniel 5:30-31 — The Fall of Babylon

At the very time of the banquet, the Medes and Persians were marching underneath the walls of Babylon where the river had flowed. They had diverted the river’s flow! While most of the Babylonians were in bed, the river had left its bed to make room for thousands of marching feet. The Greek historian, Herodotus, describes how the Persians diverted the River Euphrates into a canal upriver so that the water level dropped “to the height of the middle of a man’s thigh,” which thus rendered the Babylonian defenses useless and enabled the invaders to march through the river bed to enter by night.²⁵ Belshazzar was slain and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom.

Bible scholars have differing views on the identity of Darius the Mede. Some believe that this is just another name for Cyrus the Great of Persia—his throne name in Babylon. Cyrus was married to a Mede, and he himself had Mede blood. Another view is that Darius the Mede was Gubaru, the historical general known to have actually led the army that captured Babylon. It is possible that Cyrus would have rewarded Gubaru with a regional governorship for capturing the capital of the Babylonian Empire and virtually ending the war.

As we study this event, we can see how God’s hand guided the many writers and prophets of the Bible. Long before Daniel’s time, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied many details about the siege and fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians (see Jeremiah 50-51). In this event God also began to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy regarding Cyrus (see Isaiah 44:24-28; 45:1-13). In addition, this conquest began to fulfill the dream that God had given Nebuchadnezzar and that Daniel had interpreted (see Daniel 2:31-45).

The account of the fall of Babylon has been found in four separate historical sources—those by Greeks Herodotus and Xenophon of the fifth and fourth centuries b.c. respectively, and in the cuneiform records of both Nabonidus and Cyrus. Thus history proves the Bible to be true.

From Daniel’s time until today, many governments have risen and fallen, as did Belshazzar’s kingdom. Today’s news always seems to include political struggles, rebellions, wars and unrest around the world. We can look forward with hope and expectation to the future day when, “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure for ever” (Daniel 2:44). This is the kingdom over which the Lord Jesus Christ will rule. It will be a kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy. How wonderful it is to be a Christian and realize that God is in control of world affairs and will one day set up the perfect kingdom on earth! Do you have peace and joy from the Lord Jesus Christ as you look forward to that day?

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