More than a century before, Inspiration had foretold that “the night of ... pleasure” during which king and counselors would vie with one another in blasphemy against God, would suddenly be changed into a season of fear and destruction. And now, in rapid succession, momentous events followed one another exactly as had been portrayed in the prophetic scriptures years before the principals in the drama had been born. (PK 531.1) MC VC

While still in the festal hall, surrounded by those whose doom has been sealed, the king is informed by a messenger that “his city is taken” by the enemy against whose devices he had felt so secure; “that the passages are stopped, ... and the men of war are affrighted.” Jeremiah 51:31, 32. Even while he and his nobles were drinking from the sacred vessels of Jehovah, and praising their gods of silver and of gold, the Medes and the Persians, having turned the Euphrates out of its channel, were marching into the heart of the unguarded city. The army of Cyrus now stood under the walls of the palace; the city was filled with the soldiers of the enemy, “as with caterpillars” (Jeremiah 51:14); and their triumphant shouts could be heard above the despairing cries of the astonished revelers. (PK 531.2) MC VC

“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain,”(Daniel 5:30) and an alien monarch sat upon the throne. (PK 531.3) MC VC

Clearly had the Hebrew prophets spoken concerning the manner in which Babylon should fall. As in vision God had revealed to them the events of the future, they had exclaimed: “How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!”(Jeremiah 51:41) “How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!”(Jeremiah 50:23) “At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.” Jeremiah 50:46. (PK 531.4) MC VC