Media

Media was the ancient kingdom of the Medes, occupying the mountainous region southeast of the Caspian Sea and northwest of Persia — roughly corresponding to northwestern and western Iran. Descended from Madai the son of Japheth (Genesis 10:2), the Medes built an empire that reached its peak under Cyaxares, who allied with Babylon to destroy Nineveh in 612 B.C. Media later merged with Persia under Cyrus the Great, and the resulting Medo-Persian Empire is consistently called the empire of the Medes and Persians in Esther and Daniel.

Israelite and Judahite exiles were settled in the cities of the Medes following the Assyrian conquests (2 Kings 17:6; 18:11). Daniel's apocalyptic visions identify the Median kingdom as the second great world empire (Daniel 8:20), and the laws of the Medes and Persians — irrevocable by royal decree — appear prominently in the stories of Daniel and Esther (Daniel 6:8; Esther 1:19). Isaiah 13:17 and 21:2 call the Medes as God's instrument to overthrow Babylon.