of rich things to eat and drink for all the peoples. Jehovah of armies will rule as triumphant King in the heavenly Jerusalem on the heavenly Mount Zion, without a rival on earth. He will have put all the enemies of his anointed Jesus Christ as a stool for his feet, by the utter destruction of them.—Ps. 110:1-6; Isa. 24:23.

33. (a) What will Jehovah then make in “this mountain,” and who will enjoy it? (b) Hence how can we be happy today?

³³ Then by means of his reigning Son, Jesus Christ, who is the “Bread of Life,” Jehovah will make in the mountain of His kingdom this long-promised banquet for all the peoples. The living survivors of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Armageddon will enjoy it, and also the billions of the human dead who will be resurrected. Surely the appreciative ones will then accept God’s gracious invitation to the banquet and will eat and drink to life eternal. Happy are we today if we spread this good news everywhere!

Babylon’s Fall Turns the Tide of History

YOU may wonder why the Bible has so much to say about the fall of Babylon, especially its fall in 539 B.C.E. to Cyrus, though the city was not destroyed at that time but continued for some centuries afterward. Readers of history have similarly asked why historians have said so much about this particular overthrow of the city. An excerpt from history gives us the answer:

Military conquest affected the fortunes of Babylon at many critical stages in its history. It is all the more remarkable, therefore, that the capitulation to Cyrus in 539 B.C., should be designated ‘The Fall of Babylon,’ as if no other like event had occurred in the city’s history. Even the submission of Babylon to Alexander [the Great] in 331 B.C. pales in importance when compared with the disaster which brought the Neo-Babylonian empire to a close.

A reasonable explanation of this phenomenon commends itself to the inquirer. Cyrus, capture of Babylon brought about far-reaching consequences. Its subjugation by Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal had not removed the balance of power from Semitic control, but the triumph of Persia in 539 B.C. introduced a new predominating influence in ancient Oriental developments. That date marks the turning-point in favor of Aryan leadership, a directing force which has maintained itself at the forefront of civilization down to the present day.—Nabonidus and Belshazzar, by R. P. Dougherty, page 167.

Says The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 2, page 441b: “The fall of Babylon before the advance of Cyrus meant the fall of Semitic sway in Babylonia and the rise of Aryan power.”—Edition of 1929.a