And lest your heart should faint, and ye should fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come [one] (b) year, and after that in [another] year [shall come] a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
(b) Meaning that Babylon would not be destroyed all at once but little by little would be brought to nothing for the first year came the tidings, the next year the siege and in the third year it was taken: yet this is not that horrible destruction which the prophets threatened in many places: for that was after this when they rebelled and Darius over came them by the policy of Zopyrus, and hanged three thousand gentlemen beside the common people.