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17 Behold,
I will stir up [`uwr] the Medes [Maday] against
them, which shall not regard [chashab] silver [keceph]; and as for gold [zahab],
they shall not delight [chaphets] in it. KJV-Interlinear
17 Behold,
I am going to stir up the Medes against them, Who will not value silver or take
pleasure in gold, NASB
In Isaiah’s day, the Medes were an unknown and insignificant and backward group of tribes that were scattered in the regions to the east known as Persia. Today that region is known to us as Iran, and to the east into India.
The historian Josephus, relates the Medes as descendants of Madai, who was the son of Japheth, Gen. 10:2.
When Sargon led the Assyrians against Samaria, many of the Samarians were deported into the cities of Persia, then known as the Medes, 2 Kings 17:6. And this was still a future event relative to the time of Isaiah.
Remember too, that we are still in the prophecy of the, end days, which will occur during the Tribulation, which to us is still a future era.
According to ancient historians, when Cyrus, the ruler of the Persians, invaded and defeated Babylon, his primary agenda was conquest and the extension of the boundaries of the Persian Empire, and not in the accumulation of wealth.
Typically in ancient times when armies invaded, one of their primary goals and agendas was to collect plunder and booty from their enemies. There is more than enough documentation in historical records that demonstrates that Cyrus as well as the soldiers of the Mede and Persian armies were not focused on gaining wealth, Herodotus (1. 181-183).
Xenophon makes Cyrus open a speech to his army, and, in particular, to the Medes, who made up the principal part of it, with praising them for their disregard of riches. 'Ye Medes and others who now hear me, I well know, that you have not accompanied me in this expedition with a view of acquiring wealth.' - ("Cyrop." v.)
Gobryas, an Assyrian governor, whose son the king of Babylon had slain, hospitably entertained him and his army, Cyrus appealed to the chiefs of the Medes and Hyrcanians, and to the noblest and most honorable of the Persians, whether, giving first what was due to the gods, and leaving to the rest of the army their portion, they would not overmatch his generosity by ceding to him their whole share of the first and plentiful booty which they had won from the land of Babylon. Loudly applauding the proposal, they immediately and unanimously consented; and one of them said, "Gobryas may have thought us poor, because we came not loaded with coins, and drink not out of golden cups; but by this he will know, that men can be generous even without gold." ' (Keith "On the Prophecies," p. 198, Ed. New York, 1833.)
And so it is interesting that Isaiah, many many years before these events were going to occur, records the gist of the attitude of not only the Persian leader, but also the Persian people, and more specifically the Medes.
Bent on conquest and not on the acquisition of plunder and wealth, the Medes and Persians when they invaded Babylon, did not cart off all of the wealth of the Babylonians.
So also in our future, in the Tribulation, the peoples of the East, which the region of Persia and Mede describe, which is a reference to present-day Iran and the regions to the east into and through India, will also be invading the Middle East.
And so during the Tribulation, Satan and his chosen leader the anti-christ, will have their agenda of destroying all Jews, and all Christians, so as to defeat Christ before he returns at the second advent.
But concurrently with that will be the agenda and objectives of the peoples of the world. Namely those regions described as Persia and areas to the east. Whose objectives will be the conquest of territory, not necessarily the destruction of populations, nor the acquisition of wealth.
So this gives us more insight as to the various attitudes and objectives that will exist in people during those final gruesome days of the Tribulation, especially when so much of the world has already been, and will still be, collapsing all around everyone.
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