Daniel 2:39

Another kingdom inferior. As silver is inferior to gold, the Medo-Persian Empire was inferior to the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Some commentators have explained the term “inferior” as meaning “lower down in the image,” or “below.” The expression correctly means “downward,” “earthward,” but in this verse Daniel is speaking, not of the relative position of metals, but of nations. As we contrast the two kingdoms, we find that though the latter covered more territory, it certainly was inferior in luxury and magnificence. The Median and Persian conquerors adopted the culture of the complex Babylonian civilization, for their own was far less developed.

This second kingdom of Daniel’s prophecy is sometimes called the Medo-Persian Empire, because it began as a combination of Media and Persia. It included the older Median Empire and the newer acquisitions of the Persian conqueror Cyrus. The second kingdom cannot be the Median Empire alone, as some contend, with Persia as the third. The Median Empire was contemporary with the Neo-Babylonian, not its successor.

Media fell to Cyrus the Persian before Babylon did. The fact that after Belshazzar’s death Darius the Mede “was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans” (eh. 9:1) does not mean that there was a separate Median Empire after the Babylonian and before the Persians took over (see Vol. Ill, pp. 48-56, 94-96). Darius the Mede ruled in Babylon by permission of the real conqueror, Cyrus (see Additional Note Chapter 6), as Daniel obviously knew. The book of Daniel repeatedly refers to the nation that conquered Babylon, and that Darius represented, as that of “the Medes and Persians” (see on chs. 5:28; 6:8, 28), and it pictures that dual empire elsewhere as a single beast (see on eh. 8:3, 4).

The origin of the Medes and Persians is not clear, but it is believed that around 2000 B.C. a number of Aryan tribes, led by the Madai (Medes) began to migrate from what is now southern Russia into what later became northern Persia, where they first appear in history in the 9th century (see on Gen. 10:2; see Vol. Ill, pp. 50, 51). Among these Aryans were also the Persians, who settled in the Zagros Mountains bordering on Elam late in the 9th century B.C. Probably by 675 their ruler established himself as king of the city of Anshan. There he and his descendants ailed in comparative obscurity. At the beginning of the 6th century they were vassals of the Median king, ailing a relatively insignificant border state in the large Median Empire, which stretched from eastern Asia Minor around the north and east of the Babylonian Empire (see The Rival Empires in Jeremiah’s Time; see Vol. Ill, pp. 50, 51).

In 553 or 550 B.C. Cyrus, who had become king of Persia as a vassal of the Median Empire, defeated Astyages of Media. Thus the formerly subordinate Persians became the dominant power in what had been the Median Empire. Since the Persians were the ruling power from the time of Cyrus on, it is now generally referred to as the Persian Empire. But the older prestige of Media was reflected in the phrase “Medes and Persians” applied to the conquerors of Babylon in Daniel’s day and even later (Esther 1:19; etc.). The honorary position of Darius the Mede after the conquest of Babylon demonstrates Cyrus’ deference to the Medes even after he himself wielded the actual power (see Vol. Ill, pp. 51-53,95,96).

Years before, under prophetic guidance, the prophet Isaiah had described the work of Cyrus (Isa. 45:1). This conqueror of Media soon defeated the neighboring tribes and ruled from Ararat in the north to southeastern Babylonia and the Persian Gulf in the south. To round out his empire, he defeated the rich Croesus of Lydia in 547 B.C. and took Babylon by strategy in 539 B.C. (see Vol. Ill, pp. 51-55). Cyrus recognized that the Lord had given him all these kingdoms (2 Chron. 36:23; Ezra 1:2). For parallel prophecies concerning this empire, see on chs. 7:5; 8:3-7; 11:2.

Third kingdom. The successor of the Medo-Persian Empire was the “Greek” (more properly Macedonian or Hellenistic) Empire of Alexander and his successors (see eh. 8:20,21).

The Hebrew word for Greece is Yawan (Javan), which is the name of one of the sons of Japheth. Javan is mentioned in the genealogy immediately after Madai, the progenitor of the Medes (see on Gen. 10:2). About the time the Israelites were settling in Canaan, those Indo-European tribes later called Greeks were migrating in successive waves into the Aegean region (mainland Greece, the islands, and the western coasts of Asia Minor), conquering or driving out the earlier Mediterranean inhabitants. These displacements were connected with the movement of the Peoples of the Sea (including the Philistines) into the eastern Mediterranean coastlands (see Vol. II, pp. 27, 33, 34). Ionian Greeks were found in Egypt in the time of Psamtik I (663-610 B.C.) and in Babylonia during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.), as attested by written records.

Greece was divided into small city-states with a common language but little concerted action. When we think of ancient Greece we think chiefly of the golden age of Greek civilization, under the leadership of Athens, in the 5th century B.C. This flowering of Greek culture followed the period of the greatest united effort of the divided city-states — the successful defense of Greece against Persia about the time of Queen Esther. On the Persian wars, see on eh. 11:2; see also Vol. Ill, pp. 59-62.

The “Grecia” of eh. 8:21 does not refer to the divided city-states of classical Greece, but rather to the later Macedonian kingdom that conquered Persia. The Macedonians, a kindred nation north of Greece proper, conquered the Greek cities and incorporated them for the first time into a strong, united state. Alexander the Great, inheriting his father’s newly expanded Greco-Macedonian kingdom, set out to extend Macedonian dominion and Greek culture eastward, and conquered the Persian Empire. The prophecy represents the kingdom of Greece as following Persia, because Greece never became united into a kingdom until the formation of the Macedonian Empire, which replaced Persia as the leading world power of that time (for parallel prophecies see on chs. 7:6; 8:5-8,21,22; 11:2-4).

The last reigning king of the Persian Empire was Darius III (Codomannus), who was defeated by Alexander at the battles of Granicus (334 B.C.), Issus (333 B.C.), and Arbela, or Gaugamela (331 B.C.). For comments on the period of Alexander and the Hellenistic monarchies see on eh. 7:6; see also historical article on the intertestament period in Vol. V.

Brass. That is, bronze (see on 2 Sam. 8:8). The Greek soldiers were noted for their brazen armor. Their helmets, shields, and battle-axes were made of brass. Herodotus tells us that Psamtik I of Egypt saw in invading Greek pirates the fulfillment of an oracle that foretold “men of bronze coming from the sea” (Herodotus i. 152, 154).

Rule over all the earth. History records that the rule of Alexander extended over Macedonia, Greece, and the Persian Empire, including Egypt and extending eastward to India. It was the most extensive empire of the ancient world up to that time. Its dominion was “over all the earth” in the sense that no power on earth was equal to it, not that it covered the whole world, or even the known world of that time. A “world power” may be defined as the one that stands above all the rest, invincible, not necessarily actually governing the whole known world. Superlative statements were commonly used by ancient rulers. Cyrus called himself “king of the world, ... king of the four rims [quarters of the world].” Xerxes styled himself “the great king, the king of kings, ... the king of this big and far [reaching] earth.”