Isaiah foresaw the graphic destruction of Babylon, the degradation of its nobility, and the universal wickedness of its masses. God issued a call for forces to gather together to overthrow Babylon (see 2 Nephi 23:2–6). The call was answered when an alliance of Medes and Persians under Cyrus the Great dammed the Euphrates River and marched through the riverbed and under the walls of Babylon to capture the city and overthrow the empire in 538 B.C. The significance of the incident is more clearly indicated by considering the imagery of the term Babylon in a spiritual sense. In his prophecies Isaiah also used the term Babylon to typify the general spiritual condition of the world in the last days. The call is for the “sanctified ones” (2 Nephi 23:3), the Saints of the latter days, to gather together and join with God in overthrowing wickedness (Babylon) from the world.