Cyrus, King of Persia says: The Lord, the God of heaven, made me king over the whole earth. He gave me the responsibility of building a temple {\cf2\super [459]} for him in Jerusalem. Now, all of you who are God’s people are free to go to Jerusalem. And may the Lord your God be with you.
\{God says,\} “Look, I will cause the armies of Media to attack Babylon. \{The armies of Media will not stop attacking,\} even if they are paid silver and gold.
I have seen something very terrible\par that will happen.\par I see traitors {\cf2\super [205]} turning against you.\par I see people taking your wealth.\par
“But troubles will come to you.\par You don’t know when it will happen,\par but disaster is coming.\par You will not be able to do anything\par to stop those troubles.\par You will be destroyed so quickly\par that you won’t know what happened!\par
I have said many bad things will happen to Babylon. All of those things will happen. Jeremiah preached about those foreign nations. And all of those warnings are written in this book.
Get the nations ready for battle against her.\par Get the kings of the Medes {\cf2\super [423]} ready.\par Get their governors and all their important officials ready.\par Get all the countries they rule ready for battle against Babylon.\par
The head of the statue was made from pure gold. The chest and the arms of the statue were made from silver. The belly and upper part of the legs of the statue were made from bronze.
“Another kingdom will come after you—\{that is the silver part\}. But that kingdom will not be as great as your kingdom. Next, a third kingdom will rule over the earth—that is the bronze part.
Now, king, make the law and sign the paper it is written on. In this way, the law can’t be changed. Why? Because the laws of the Medes and Persians can’t be canceled or changed.”
These things happened during the first year that Darius was king. Darius was the son of a man named Ahasuerus. {\cf2\super [99]} Darius belonged to the Median people. He became king over Babylon.