Topic
Medes, Media
14 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1884 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- 2 Kings 17:6Smith
¶ In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
- 2 Kings 18:12Smith
Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.
- Ezra 6:2–5Smith
And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written: In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the…
- Isaiah 13:17Smith
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
- Isaiah 21:2Smith
A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
- Jeremiah 25:25Smith
And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,
- Jeremiah 51:11Smith
Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
- Jeremiah 51:28Smith
Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
- Daniel 5:25Smith
¶ And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
- Daniel 5:28Smith
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
- Daniel 5:31Smith
And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.
- Daniel 6:8Smith
Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
Show 2 more
- Daniel 6:12 Smith
- Daniel 6:15 Smith
In the reference works
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 14 references
- Media Atropatene corresponded nearly to the modern Azerbijan , being the tract situated between the Caspian and the mountains which run north from Zagros.
- Media Magna lay south and east of Atropatene. It contained great part of Kurdistan and Luristan , with all Ardelan and Arak Ajemi . It is indicative of the division that there were two Ecbatanas, respectively the capitals of the two districts. The Medes were a nation of very high antiquity; we find a notice of them in the primitive Babylonian history of Berosus, who says that the Medes conquered Babylon at a very remote period (cir. B.C. 2458), and that eight Median monarchs reigned there consecutively, over a space of 224 years. The deepest obscurity hangs, however, over the whole history of the Medes from the time of their bearing sway in Babylonia, B.C. 2458-2234, to their first appearance in the cuneiform inscriptions among the enemies of Assyria, about B.C. 880. Near the middle of the seventh century B.C. the Median kingdom was consolidated, and became formidable to its neighbors; but previous to this time it was not under the dominion of a single powerful monarch, but was ruled by a vast number of petty chieftains. Cyaxares, the third Median monarch, took Nineveh and conquered Assyria B.C. 625. The limits of the Median empire cannot be definitely fixed. From north to south it was certainly confined between the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates on the one side, the Black and Caspian Seas on the other. From east to west it had, however, a wide expansion, since it reached from the Halys at least as far as the Caspian Gates, and possible farther. It was separated from Babylonia either by the Tigris or more probably by a line running about halfway between that river and the Euphrates. Its greatest length may be reckoned at 1500 miles from northwest to southeast, and its average breadth at 400 or 450 miles. Its area would thus be about 600,000 square miles, or somewhat greater than that of modern Persia. Of all the ancient Oriental monarchies the Median was the shortest in duration. It was overthrown by the Persians under Cyrus, B.C. 558, who captured its king, Astyages. The treatment of the Medes by the victorious Persians was not that of an ordinary conquered nation. Medes were appointed to stations of high honor and importance under Cyrus and his successors. The two nations seem blended into one, and we often find reference to this kingdom as that of the "Medes and Persians." (Daniel 5:28; 6:8,12,15) The references to the Medes in the canonical Scriptures are not very numerous, but they are striking. We first hear of certain "cities of the Medes," in which the captive Israelites were placed by "the king of Assyria" on the destruction of Samaria, B.C. 721 (2 Kings 17:6; 18:12) Soon afterward Isaiah prophesies the part which the Medes shall take in the destruction of Babylon, (Isaiah 13:17; 21:2) which is again still more distinctly declared by Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 51:11,28) who sufficiently indicates the independence of Media in his day. ch. (Jeremiah 25:25) Daniel relates the fact of the Medo-Persia conquest, (Daniel 5:25,31) giving an account of the reign of Darius the Mede, who appears to have been made viceroy by Cyrus. (Daniel 6:1-58) In Ezra we have a mention of Achmetha (Ecbatana), "the palace in the province of the Medes," where the decree of Cyrus was found, (Ezra 6:2-5) --a notice which accords with the known facts that the Median capital was the seat of government under Cyrus, but a royal residence only, and not the seat of government, under Darius Hystaspis. Finally, in Esther the high rank of Media under the Persian kings, yet at the same time its subordinate position, is marked by the frequent composition of the two names in phrases of honor, the precedence being in every ease assigned to the Persians.
Texts: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.