¹⁷ See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no value on silver and have no pleasure in gold.

³⁴ For bitter is the wrath of an angry husband; in the day of punishment he will have no mercy.

³⁵ He will not take any payment; and he will not make peace with you though your money offerings are increased.

¹¹ Make bright the arrows; take up the body-covers: the Lord has been moving the spirit of the king of the Medes; because his design against Babylon is its destruction: for it is the punishment from the Lord, the payment for his Temple.

² A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste. Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her sorrow.

³ I have given orders to my holy ones, I have sent out my men of war, those of mine who take pride in their power, to give effect to my wrath.

⁴ The noise of great numbers in the mountains, like the noise of a strong people! The noise of the kingdoms of the nations meeting together! The Lord of armies is numbering his forces for war.

⁵ They come from a far country, from the farthest part of heaven, even the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, with destruction for all the land.

²⁵ I have sent for one from the north, and from the dawn he has come; in my name he will get rulers together and go against them; they will be like dust, even as the wet earth is stamped on by the feet of the potter.

⁹ For see, I am moving and sending up against Babylon a band of great nations from the north country: and they will put their armies in position against her; and from there she will be taken: their arrows will be like those of an expert man of war; not one will come back without getting its mark.

²⁷ Let a flag be lifted up in the land, let the horn be sounded among the nations, make the nations ready against her; get the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz together against her, make ready a scribe against her; let the horses come up against her like massed locusts.

²⁸ Make the nations ready for war against her, the king of the Medes and his rulers and all his captains, and all the land under his rule.

²⁸ Peres; your kingdom has been cut up and given to the Medes and Persians.

²⁹ Then, by the order of Belshazzar, they put a purple robe on Daniel, and a gold chain round his neck, and a public statement was made that he was to be a ruler of high authority in the kingdom.

³⁰ That very night Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans, was put to death.