Daniel 2:39

The second and third kingdoms are, in all probability, the Median and the Persian. The home of the Medes was in the mountainous country N. and N.E. of Babylon, and S.W. of the Caspian Sea; they are often mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions from the 8th cent. b.c.; but they were first consolidated into an important power by Cyaxares, b.c. 624 584, during whose reign, in 607, they were the chief instruments in bringing about the destruction of Nineveh. Cyaxares was succeeded by Astyages, whose soldiers deserted en masseto Cyrus (b.c. 549); and the empire of the Medes thus passed into the hands of the Persians. Their name was however long remembered; for the Greeks regularly spoke of the Persians as Medes(οἱ Μῆδοι, τὰ Μηδικά). In the book of Daniel the -Medes and Persians" are, it is true, sometimes represented as united (Daniel 5:28; Daniel 6:8; Daniel 6:12; Daniel 6:15, cf. Daniel 8:20): but elsewhere they are represented as distinct; after the fall of Babylon, Darius -the Mede" -receives the kingdom" (Daniel 5:31), and acts in it as king (Daniel 6:1-2; Daniel 6:15; Daniel 6:25-26); he reigns for a time it is not said how long and is succeeded by Cyrus, who is called pointedly -the Persian" (Daniel 6:28; cf. Daniel 10:1, and contrast Daniel 9:1; Daniel 11:1); the two horns of the ram in Daniel 8:3 are distinguished from each other, one (representing the Persian empire) being higher (i.e. more powerful) than the other (the Median empire), and coming up after it. Thus in the view of the author of the book, the more powerful rule of Persia is preceded by a -kingdom" of the Medes, beginning immediately after the death of Belshazzar. It is possible that this representation is based upon the prediction in Isaiah 13:17; Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:28, that the Medes would be the conquerors of Babylon. If the second kingdom be the Median, the third will be that of Persia; it is described as ruling -over all the earth," with allusion to the wide empire of Cyrus and his successors, which embraced virtually the whole of Western Asia (including Asia Minor) and Egypt (cf. the note on Daniel 4:1, at the end). Compare in the O.T. Ezra 1:2; Esther 1:1; Esther 10:1.

inferior to thee lit. lower than thou.