King Cyrus, of the Medo-Persian Empire, conquered Babylon in about 538 BC.¹ According to Daniel chapter 7, Satan's dominion in this second kingdom after Babylon was "like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it."² Bears are particularly vicious and destructive when provoked by hunger.³ In prophetic imagery, the Lord commands the Medo-Persian bear to arise and devour much flesh,⁴ and this empire did so with unrestrained cruelty.⁵

In Daniel's vision, the symbolic bear was raised up on one side because the Medo-Persian Empire consisted of the united kingdoms of both the Medes and Persians.⁶ The Persian part of the kingdom was the stronger of the two.⁷ The Persian bear under Cyrus rose up in 538 BC to conquer the Babylonian lion.⁸

The three ribs in the bear's mouth probably refer to the three major Medo-Persian conquests of Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon, which were the three kingdoms that were ground between the bear's teeth.⁹ Some scholars believe, however, that the number three is a symbolic figure.¹⁰ Use of this symbolically-sacred number may indicate the Lord's divine intervention.¹¹ Others believe that the three ribs in the bear's teeth represent nations that were attacked but not fully conquered when the Medo-Persian Empire rose to power.¹²

Satan's bear-like power in the Medo-Persian Empire continued until the Greek Empire came to power through the conquests of Alexander the Great in about 330 BC.¹³