Isaiah 13:17
17 Behold, I will stir up [`uwr] the Medes [Maday] against
them, which shall not regard [chashab] silver [keceph]; and as for gold [zahab],
they shall not delight [chaphets] in it. KJV-Interlinear
17 Behold, I am going to stir up
the Medes against them, Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold, NASB
In Isaiah’s day, the
Medes were an unknown and insignificant and backward group of tribes that were
scattered in the regions to the east known as Persia. Today that region is
known to us as Iran, and to the east into India.
The historian Josephus,
relates the Medes as descendants of Madai, who was the son of Japheth, Gen. 10:2.
When Sargon led the
Assyrians against Samaria, many of the Samarians were deported into the cities
of Persia, then known as the Medes, 2 Kings 17:6. And this was still a future
event relative to the time of Isaiah.
Remember too, that we
are still in the prophecy of the, end days, which will occur during the
Tribulation, which to us is still a future era.
According to ancient
historians, when Cyrus, the ruler of the Persians, invaded and defeated
Babylon, his primary agenda was conquest and the extension of the boundaries of
the Persian Empire, and not in the accumulation of wealth.
Typically in ancient
times when armies invaded, one of their primary goals and agendas was to
collect plunder and booty from their enemies. There is more than enough
documentation in historical records that demonstrates that Cyrus as well as the
soldiers of the Mede and Persian armies were not focused on gaining wealth, Herodotus
(1. 181-183).
Xenophon makes Cyrus
open a speech to his army, and, in particular, to the Medes, who made up the
principal part of it, with praising them for their disregard of riches. 'Ye
Medes and others who now hear me, I well know, that you have not accompanied me
in this expedition with a view of acquiring wealth.' - ("Cyrop." v.)
Gobryas, an Assyrian governor,
whose son the king of Babylon had slain, hospitably entertained him and his
army, Cyrus appealed to the chiefs of the Medes and Hyrcanians, and to the
noblest and most honorable of the Persians, whether, giving first what was due
to the gods, and leaving to the rest of the army their portion, they would not
overmatch his generosity by ceding to him their whole share of the first and
plentiful booty which they had won from the land of Babylon. Loudly applauding
the proposal, they immediately and unanimously consented; and one of them said,
"Gobryas may have thought us poor, because we came not loaded with coins,
and drink not out of golden cups; but by this he will know, that men can be
generous even without gold." ' (Keith "On the Prophecies," p.
198, Ed. New York, 1833.)
And so it is
interesting that Isaiah, many many years before these events were going to
occur, records the gist of the attitude of not only the Persian leader, but
also the Persian people, and more specifically the Medes.
Bent on conquest and
not on the acquisition of plunder and wealth, the Medes and Persians when they
invaded Babylon, did not cart off all of the wealth of the Babylonians.
So also in our future, in
the Tribulation, the peoples of the East, which the region of Persia and Mede
describe, which is a reference to present-day Iran and the regions to the east
into and through India, will also be invading the Middle East.
And so during the Tribulation,
Satan and his chosen leader the anti-christ, will have their agenda of
destroying all Jews, and all Christians, so as to defeat Christ before he
returns at the second advent.
But concurrently with
that will be the agenda and objectives of the peoples of the world. Namely
those regions described as Persia and areas to the east. Whose objectives will
be the conquest of territory, not necessarily the destruction of populations,
nor the acquisition of wealth.
So this gives us more
insight as to the various attitudes and objectives that will exist in people
during those final gruesome days of the Tribulation, especially when so much of
the world has already been, and will still be, collapsing all around everyone.
