In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

And the king of Assyria carried away Israel to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;

And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written:

and the next unto him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of the Persians and Medes, which saw the king's face, and sat above in the kingdom.

If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.

Lift up a signal banner on the bare mountain,
Summon them [the Medes and Persians] with a loud voice,
Wave the [beckoning] hand so that they may enter the doorways of the [Babylonian] nobles.

I [the Lord] have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My great warriors,
My proudly exulting ones [the Medes and the Persians who triumph for My honor]—
To execute My anger.

Behold me! stirring up against them the Medes, - Who of silver, shall take no account, And as for gold, they shall not delight in it;

Then shall young men's bows be knapped asunder. The Medes shall have no pity upon women with child, and their faces shall not spare the children.

I have received a distressing message: "The deceiver deceives, the destroyer destroys. Attack, you Elamites! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all the groaning!"

And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;

Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields [and cover yourselves]!
The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
Because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it;
For that is the vengeance of the Lord, vengeance [on Babylon] for [plundering and destroying] His temple.

Prepare the nations to do battle against her. Prepare the kings of the Medes. Prepare their governors and all their leaders. Prepare all the countries they rule to do battle against her.

And that the fords [across the Euphrates] have been blocked and [the ferries] seized,
And they have set the [great] marshes on fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traders of Asshur and all the Medes:

PERES, Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.

Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king's decree: Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask anything of any god or man within thirty days, except of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.

Then these men came in a body unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed.

Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, there in front of the canal stood a [lone] ram (the Medo-Persian Empire) which had two horns. The two horns were high, but one (Persia) was higher than the other (Media), and the higher one came up last.

The ram which thou sawest with the two horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians:

In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, - who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans:

In year one of King Darius the Mede, I arose to fortify and strengthen him.'"

I, therefore, in the first year of Darius the Mede, was at my station to strengthen and embolden him;

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia,