3. (a) What did Jehovah declare he would bring against the ancient prototype of Babylon the Great, and from where? (b) Why was it that the Medes were presented so outstandingly?

³ Adding to the argument in favor of our getting out of Babylon the Great promptly, Jehovah declares his purpose to bring up against her ancient prototype “a congregation of great nations from the land of the north” to attack it. Because the “congregation” was to be a combined military force under one command, it could be termed also a “nation . . . from the north.” (Jer. 50:3, 8, 9) The prophecy was correct in predicting that “the kings of the Medes” would be outstandingly among that “congregation” of nations. (Jer. 51:11) Persians were not mentioned as being among the congregation. This was not an accidental oversight, for Cyrus the Great, who assumed supreme command of the “congregation,” did have some Median blood in him. After he conquered the kingdom of the Medes, he incorporated mainly Median soldiers in his army. Cyrus came to power after Jeremiah’s day.

4. After Babylon’s fall, who first began reigning in that city, and how was Daniel correct as to who would come to the top in the Medo-Persian Empire?

⁴ At Babylon’s fall in 539 B.C.E., Darius the Mede who began to reign there was 62 years old. (Dan. 5:30, 31) With regard to the Medo-Persian Empire, Daniel 8:3 was correct in showing that the Persian part would come to the top afterward. It was Cyrus the Persian who decreed the return of exiled Jews to their homeland.​—Ezra 1:1-4.

5. (a) With what direction is Jehovah associated with reference to deeds of destruction? (b) Whom did he declare he would use as her club in dashing nations and kingdoms to pieces?

⁵ As in the case of Jerusalem’s destruction earlier in 607 B.C.E., destruction was to come upon Babylon from out of the “north.” (Ezek. 1:4; 9:2; Jer. 50:41; 51:48) As respects direction, Psalm 75:6, 7 apparently associates God with the north when saying: “Neither from the east nor from the west, nor from the south is there an exalting. For God is the judge. This one he abases, and that one he exalts.” By way of the northern route, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came in 609 B.C.E. against Jerusalem and her rebellious king, Zedekiah.

6. After the foregoing words, what did Jehovah declare he would pay back to Chaldea’s inhabitants?

⁶ After that, what, O Jehovah? “I will pay back to Babylon [not to Nebuchadnezzar] and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their badness that they have committed in Zion [or, Jerusalem] before the eyes of you people.”​—Jer. 51:24, 59, 60.

7. What war cry did Jehovah raise against Babylon in 614 B.C.E., and who responded?

⁷ In the days of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, the Median Empire lay beyond the Tigris River and to the east and north of the Babylonian Empire. To fulfill prophecy, Cyrus the Great, accompanied by Median King Darius, came from the north against the land of the Chaldeans and its capital, Babylon. These spoilers of Babylon responded to Jehovah’s war cry already issued in 614 B.C.E.:

“Lift up a signal in the land, O men. Blow a horn among the nations. Sanctify against her the nations. Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz [to the north]. Commission against her a recruiting officer. Make the horses come up like bristly locusts. Sanctify against her the nations, the kings of Media, its governors and all its deputy rulers and all the land of each one’s dominion. And let the earth rock and be in severe pain, for against Babylon the thoughts of Jehovah have risen up to make the land of Babylon an object of astonishment, without an inhabitant.”​—Jer. 51:27-29.