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

Since it was such an important event, and since Babylon’s fall is an outstanding Bible theme, it is good for us to have some of the details of what happened on Babylon’s fatal night. It will help us to see greater significance in the Bible’s account and to understand how it paints a prophetic picture of something greater to take place in connection with Babylon the Great in our day, as will be discussed in later issues of The Watchtower.

It is of interest to observe how easily this great city fell to Cyrus the Persian on the history-making night of Tishri 16 in 539 B.C.E. Mainly, it occurred in this way because it had been foretold by Jehovah’s prophets, and he saw to it that his prophecies were carried out. Why were the inhabitants of Babylon so careless and unwatchful when they knew the armies of Cyrus were camped outside the city? ‘Ah,’ they thought, ‘the defenses of Babylon are strong and the city is amply supplied with provisions, so let Cyrus try to take Babylon.’ Even though the Babylonians under King Nabonidus had been beaten in the open field of battle and Nabonidus had taken refuge in Borsippa, a short distance southwest of Babylon, the Babylonians felt that, behind the walls of Babylon, they could laugh to scorn any besieger. They thought that any army besieging Babylon would wear out (and it might have been so with Cyrus had he not gained the easy access to the city that he did). Additionally, this was the night of a certain festival, and Belshazzar probably selected this as an opportunity to display his contempt of the besieger Cyrus before his thousand grandees.

Following the example of their king, the Babylonians gave themselves up for the night to orgies, filling the city with noises of religious frenzy and drunken excess. But what was going on outside the walls? A most unexpected thing. Cyrus had taken a large section of his army up the Euphrates River, above Babylon. Here he had set them to work digging a canal or canals to drain off the water of the Euphrates before it reached the city. In the still darkness of the night outside Babylon’s walls, the force of Medes and Persians left by Cyrus gathered at one end of the city where the Euphrates entered, near the Ishtar Gate, and at the other extremity of the city where the Euphrates flowed out. Eagerly they watched the receding waters. They would naturally be apprehensive that someone might notice the dropping water level and sound the alarm. So far, no cry was raised. The Babylonian watchmen seemed fully absorbed in the revelry. But the night was wearing on, and the invaders could not afford to wait until the river was completely drained. As soon and as silently as possible, they poured into the riverbed, sloshing almost up to their thighs, as they made for the nearest gates. Had the Babylonians been at all on the alert they could easily have trapped the Medo-Persian invaders and annihilated them with missiles from the top of the walls before they could even get out with their own lives by the way they had come. But the hapless Babylonians within the city were entirely oblivious to what went on outside. The only sounds coming to the invaders’ ears were sounds of festivity.

One who peered into the darkness between the canyon-like Babylonian walls would have seen shadowy groups approach the gates, growing in size as hundreds of the attackers came up the river banks to reinforce their numbers. As they had hoped, the gates were carelessly left open. The Babylonians had depended on the river for defense rather than the gates. The guards at the gates were overpowered, but