A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused. – Isaiah 21:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 12, 2017): Isaiah 21

In 539 B.C.E., Cyrus captured Babylon for the Persian Empire. It is likely that the battle had been raging for a while as the outlying towns surrendered to Cyrus and his army. By 540 B.C.E., all of the great statues that had been residing in the distant towns and villages of the Empire had already been brought into the city of Babylon. But, finally, it was time for Cyrus to enter the city. The Babylonians had long believed that their city was impregnable – the walls were simply too strong to be overcome by any opposing army.

We really don’t know what exactly happened in those final days of the Babylonian Empire. We suspect that Cyrus had already been negotiating with Babylon. But we also know that the Persians had found a weakness in the defenses of the city. Water flowed into the city through the Euphrates River. The river was barred, but if the water of the river could be reduced, the city could be entered via the riverbed.

And that is exactly what Cyrus decides to do. While the city celebrates, and likely while negotiations proceeded, Cyrus diverts the water of the Euphrates and the Persian army enters through the river gate of the city. The outskirts of the area fell first, and the city was already under Persian control long before the leaders even realized that the Persian army had breached the city’s defenses.

According to Cyrus, in the final days of the Babylon Empire, Babylon was be repaid with treachery. Isaiah summed up the last days of the Babylonian Empire by saying that the traitor betrays and the looter loots. Through Cyrus, Elam and Media, both ancient names for Persia, rose up and destroyed the Babylonian Empire. And that destruction of the Babylonians opened the door for the Jews to return home. Because while the Babylonian tactic was to remove people groups replacing them with other people and shaking up the ethnic makeup of the Empire, Cyrus and the Persians tactic was to send the captives back to their native lands, ensuring their loyalty and trust by giving them exactly what they wanted – home.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 22