A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 44: Cyrus, the Man of Gold

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 44: Cyrus, the Man of Gold

Discussing Isaiah chapter 44, we had explained that Yahweh God is The Shepherd of the Blind on account of the fact that He leads men to do His will, even when men do not know or acknowledge Him, or even when they are purposely blinded by Him so that they cannot see the consequences of their own actions. This last sort of blindness was imposed on the children of Israel in the declaration of Isaiah chapter 6. There Yahweh had spoken to the prophet Isaiah and we read: “9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.”

However as we hope to have explained in that same discussion, once they had been removed from the land the children of Israel had been stricken with a different sort of blindness, on account of what had been declared in Hosea chapter 3: “4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: 5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.” Having none of the trappings of their former nationhood, they would ultimately forget their own history as Israel, even if they fulfilled the promises which Yahweh had made to Abraham, by becoming many nations and a company of nations in the long process of their captivity.

That blindness is a consequence of their punishment for disobedience, and in Deuteronomy chapter 28, where the curses for disobedience are listed, we read in part: “28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: 29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.” So later in Isaiah, in chapter 59, the children of Israel are portrayed as having made a profession of that blindness, where we read, in part: “10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.”

In the closing verses of Isaiah chapter 44, there is a reference to Cyrus, and at this time in history, which is around 700 BC, there is no record of any notable figure named Cyrus having existed up to this point. The first Cyrus known in history with any certainty would be Cyrus I, king of Anshan, a city of Elam in the Zagros Mountains close to the site of the city of Susa, then-future capital of the empire of Persia which would be founded by his grandson, Cyrus II, who is the Cyrus mentioned here. Cyrus I is generally believed to have ruled from about 600 to 580 BC, his son Cambyses from 580 to 559 BC, and Cyrus II from 559 to 530 BC. This chronology generally agrees with the later Greek records of subsequent Persian kings, as well as events where they are mentioned in Daniel, Nehemiah and Ezra. Of course, it is Cyrus II who had conquered Babylon in 539 BC. There is one earlier Cyrus who is said to have appeared in inscriptions much earlier, in events relating to Ashurbanipal king of Assyria which took place as early as 652 and 639 BC, who is speculated to have been Cyrus I, but the identification is doubtful. [1] These seem to reference an even earlier Cyrus, of whom little or even nothing is known by historians today.

In any event, it should be without doubt that the Cyrus prophesied by Isaiah here is indeed the king known to history as Cyrus II, who is first mentioned in the closing verses of Isaiah chapter 44 where we read, in words attributed to Yahweh as He speaks of Himself:

27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: 28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. 

Here in the Word of Yahweh, Cyrus is called “My shepherd”, and it is he who is described as having said to Jerusalem that “thou shalt be built”. As we have explained, at this point in history Jerusalem is still intact, and it would not be destroyed for as many as another hundred and fifteen years. Cyrus II won’t become the ruler of Persia for at least another hundred and forty years, and he won’t conquer Babylon for about another hundred and sixty years. So all of these things are prophesied here, and even if they are not explicit, they are evident from the circumstances which this prophecy expresses. As we have also discussed on several occasions, the Babylonian Empire is prophesied in Isaiah chapters 13 and 14, at a time which was at least a hundred and twenty years before Babylon would even become an empire, and then in Isaiah chapter 39, Hezekiah is told that of his sons and all of his treasures would go into captivity in Babylon, a hundred and fifteen years before that event would actually come to pass.

Jerusalem would be completely destroyed by the Babylonians around 585 BC. While the chronology of Hezekiah is problematical, as we have run into a discrepancy of ten years throughout our discussions of chronology in this commentary, the kings which follow Hezekiah rule for a total of just over a hundred and ten years, according to the records in Scripture. So if the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem was in 701 BC, and if Hezekiah would rule in Judah for another 14 years thereafter, that same ten-year discrepancy is apparent once again. However the point is that the estimation of a hundred and fifteen years from this time in the ministry of Isaiah to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem is indeed within reason.

It is also certain that Jerusalem was completely destroyed in 585 BC. For example, in the closing verses of the 137th Psalm we read: “7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. 9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” Then in 1 Esdras chapter 4, where Esdras, or Ezra, is speaking of the time of Zerubbabel, where Zerubbabel is described as having addressed the Persian king Darius, and we read in part: “42 Then said the king unto him, Ask what thou wilt more than is appointed in the writing, and we will give it thee, because thou art found wisest; and thou shalt sit next me, and shalt be called my cousin. 43 Then said he unto the king, Remember thy vow, which thou hast vowed to build Jerusalem, in the day when thou camest to thy kingdom, 44 And to send away all the vessels that were taken away out of Jerusalem, which Cyrus set apart, when he vowed to destroy Babylon, and to send them again thither. 45 Thou also hast vowed to build up the temple, which the Edomites burned when Judea was made desolate by the Chaldees. 46 And now, O lord the king, this is that which I require, and which I desire of thee, and this is the princely liberality proceeding from thyself: I desire therefore that thou make good the vow, the performance whereof with thine own mouth thou hast vowed to the King of heaven.”

This king Cyrus had conquered Babylon in 539 BC, and then he had died some time around 530 BC. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses, who was a harsh ruler but who died shortly after returning to Ecbatana from a wound he had received in battle. In Book 11 of his Antiquities of the Judaeans, Flavius Josephus gave an account of a decree of Cyrus which allowed the people of Judah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, and he said in part “When Cyrus had said this to the Israelites, the rulers of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites and priests, went in haste to Jerusalem; yet did many of them stay at Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions” . Thereafter he proceeded by discussing Cambyses, whom he had described as “naturally wicked” , and how he had stopped the people of Judah from building the temple at the behest of the neighboring peoples in Palestine, who had written to him letters making appeals that he stop them. Unwittingly, Yahweh being the Shepherd of the Blind, the inconvenience of this stoppage would ensure the fulfillment of the words of Jeremiah, that Jerusalem would lie desolate for 70 years, and not for only 62 or 63.

The letters of appeal made by their adversaries are described in Ezra chapter 4, where the title Artaxerxes is used in reference to Cambyses, and then their enemies had received an answer, where we read in part: “17 Then sent the king an answer unto Rehum the chancellor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto the rest beyond the river, Peace, and at such a time. 18 The letter which ye sent unto us hath been plainly read before me. 19 And I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. 20 There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and custom, was paid unto them. 21 Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until another commandment shall be given from me. 22 Take heed now that ye fail not to do this: why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings? 23 Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Judaeans, and made them to cease by force and power. 24 Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.”

Upon the death of Cambyses there was a usurper to the throne, an impostor who was eventually displaced by the Persian nobility, and Darius the son of Hystaspis became king of Persia in 522 BC. So with that it is evident that work on the temple in Jerusalem had recommenced in his second year, or perhaps 520 BC, and having taken five years it was completed in 516 BC, and that also completes the seventy years prophecy of Jeremiah, where we shall read from Daniel chapter 9, and he is referencing Darius: “2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” So Daniel understood that the seventy years were about to expire.

Throughout the Old Testament, many the prophecies of a Messiah found in the various books of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets are dependent on the presence of a temple in Jerusalem, where the rituals of the law would be maintained, and this is how Yahweh Himself had chosen to set the stage for His coming, as Yahshua Christ, to effect the salvation of Israel. In Malachi chapter 3 we read: “1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” Yahshua Christ is the Lord who had come to His temple, to deliver the message of the New Covenant promised to Israel in the words of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the redemption often announced here in Isaiah.

So even with the complete destruction of the remnant of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians, and the desolate state of Jerusalem after 585 BC, through Cyrus Yahweh had made that possible, along with the continued cooperation of his successors, both Darius and his grandson, who was known to the Greeks as Artaxerxes I. But now, as we commence with Isaiah chapter 45, while in the Word of Yahweh Cyrus is called “My shepherd”, it is Yahweh who is the Shepherd of Cyrus, since he himself is also blind:

1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; 2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. 

Where Yahweh has promised here to hold Cyrus by the hand, and “make the crooked places straight”, we see very similar language in the prophecy of a messenger who would be sent before Yahweh Himself, in Isaiah chapter 40: “ 3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.” So similarly to the manner in which John the Baptist had prepared the way for Christ, Yahweh would prepare the way for Cyrus, that he would not have a difficult time entering the city of Babylon through the two leaved gates.

However Cyrus was not a Christian, and he could not have known much, if anything, about Yahweh, the God of Israel. So in that sense, having been a pagan and not having known the One True God, Cyrus was also blind, and while he is Yahweh’s shepherd in this prophecy, and in his ensuing actions, it is Yahweh Himself who is the Shepherd of the blind, so Yahweh attests to having held his hand. Cyrus was born of a line of kings of Anshan in Elam, and he must have been an Elamite by birth, a descendant of Elam the oldest son of Shem. Therefore he was also a pagan, and worshipped the gods of Mesopotamia, as the Assyrians, Babylonians and others had worshipped.

So in an inscription which had belonged to Cyrus I, which had been discovered by archaeologists in 1879 and is known as the Cyrus Cylinder, in the opening lines which are very fragmented, we read the following:

[When the god Mard]uk, the king of all of heaven and earth, [... who] lays to waste his [...] ... [through] his ..., [... bro]ad in intelligence, ... [..., the one who inspects the (four) qu]arters (of the world), [...], his eldest [off]spring (Belshazzar), a lowly person, was installed as the ruler of his land, [...] he caused [..., a re]plica, to be set up over them.” [2]

Bel, or Baal, was a title, and in Babylon it was used as a title for the god, or idol, Marduk. The ellipses in the writing must have mentioned Nabonidus, who is also mentioned later in this inscription, since Belshazzar was his son, and according to the Book of Daniel, which this inscription corroborates in this aspect, Belshazzar was the ruler of Babylon, as Cyrus had also professed here.

Then just a little further on in the Cyrus Cylinder, it is evident that Yahweh certainly had arranged a smooth path into Babylon for Cyrus, where we read:

He (Marduk) commanded that he (Cyrus) should march against his city, Babylon. He made him take the road to Babylon and, like a friend and companion, he marched at his side. His widespread troops, whose number, like the water of a river, cannot be ascertained, marched fully armed at his side. Without a fight or battle, he allowed him to enter Šuanna (Babylon). He saved his city, Babylon, from hardship. He delivered Nabonidus, the king who did not revere him, into his hands. The people of Babylon, all of them, the entirety of the land of Sumer and Akkad, (as well as) the nobles and governor(s), bowed down before him (and) kissed his feet. They were happy at him being king (and) their faces shone. (As for) the lord, who through his (Marduk’s) support revived the dying (and) universally spared (them) from trouble and hardship, they graciously blessed him (and) praised his name. [3]

This circumstance is corroborated somewhat in the Book of Daniel, but more explicitly in surviving Babylonian inscriptions. In the historiographic literature of Nebuchadnezzar II and Nabonidus, Babylonian scribes left a record of the end of Nabonidus and the conquest of Cyrus II, where we read in part:

The 14th day, Sippar was seized without battle. Nabonidus fled. The 16th day, Gobryas (Ugbaru), the governor of Gutium and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without battle. Afterwards Nabonidus was arrested in Babylon when he returned (there). Till the end of the month, the shield(-carrying) Gutians were staying within Esagila (but) nobody carried arms in Esagila and its (pertinent) buildings, the correct time (for a ceremony) was not missed.

This Esagila was the temple of the idol Marduk within Babylon, and Marduk, whose name was also frequently invoked by Cyrus II, was considered to have been the protector of the city. So continuing with the inscription:

In the month of Arahshamnu, the 3rd day, Cyrus entered Babylon, green twigs were spread in front of him — the state of "Peace" (šulmu) was imposed upon the city. Cyrus sent greetings to all Babylon. Gobryas, his governor, installed (sub-)governors in Babylon. From the month of Kislimu to the month of Addaru, the gods of Akkad which Nabonidus had made come down to Babylon … returned to their sacred cities…. [4]

This inscription corroborates not only the peaceful entry into Babylon by Cyrus and his armies, but also the fact that an amnesty was declared, so that dislocated peoples and their gods, or idols, could return to the places from which they had been taken. The green twigs spread on the street in front of him by the people as he marched into the city, reveals an ancient custom which we see again upon the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, riding upon an ass, where the people declared for Him to be king and had spread their garments in His path ahead of Him, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 21, Mark chapter 11, and John chapter 12.

Once Cyrus came to rule over Babylon, he decreed that all of the peoples who had been deported from their homes and relocated to other places within the empire could return. So while here it is apparent that this particular decree only applies to people in Babylonia, it is evident that this must have been a general policy of Cyrus for all of the provinces over which he had come to rule, and which had formerly been ruled by Babylonians and the earlier Assyrians. Reading further on in the same inscription found on the Cyrus Cylinder, such decrees are once again attested, extending far beyond the borders of Babylon:

From [Šuanna (Babylon)] to Aššur and Susa, Agade, Ešnunna, Zabbān, Mê-Turān, Dēr, as far as the border of the land of the Gutians, (and) cult-centers on the opposite side of the Tigris River whose dwellings had previous been in ruins — I returned the deities who live inside them to their (proper) places and I made (them) reside in (their) eternal dwelling(s). I gathered (together) all of their people and returned (them to) their settlements. [5]

There were Judaeans who would not return to Jerusalem, for which Josephus had said that “many of them stay at Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions”, as we had cited earlier, and that is also reflected in later portions of the writings of Josephus, in Antiquities of the Judaeans, Book 15 where we read of circumstances which had existed nearly four hundred years later: “14 But when Hyrcanus was brought into Parthia the king, Phraates, treated him in a very gentle manner, having already learned of what an illustrious family he was; on which account he set him free from his bonds, and permitted him to settle in Babylon, where there were Judaeans in great numbers.”

Now the focus departs from Cyrus, who is nevertheless being addressed, and returns once again to Jacob and Israel:

4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. 

Here, with the salvation of Israel becoming the subject of this prophecy, it is apparent that Cyrus, King of Persia, is being described as having had an important role in Yahweh’s plans for the salvation of Israel. However Cyrus is still being addressed here, and it is evident that where the Word of Yahweh says “I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me”, Yahweh is portrayed as if He speaking to Cyrus, that Cyrus shall do these things for the sake of Israel even though Cyrus had not known Yahweh.

The fact that Cyrus would decree the restoration of Jerusalem for the sake of Israel is also apparent where the decree of Cyrus respecting Jerusalem is mentioned in 2 Chronicles chapter 36:

22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 23 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.

There Cyrus is recorded as having invoked the name of Yahweh, which is plausible since it was quite common for ancient kings to invoke the names of the gods of other nations in their dealings with them. This we discussed in part 25 of our Genesis commentary, titled The Vanquished, where the Hittite king Suppiluliumas had made a treaty with the Hurrian king Kurtiwaza, in which he had invoked the names of all the gods of the surrounding nations, including those of his own and those of Kurtiwaza. Then having done so, after warning what the gods would do to Kurtiwaza if he broke the treaty, on the condition that he would live up to its terms we read: “If (on the other hand) you, Kurtiwaza, the prince, and (you), the Hurrians, fulfill this treaty and (this) oath, may these gods protect you, Kurtiwaza, together with your wife, the daughter of the Hatti land, her children and her children's children, and also (you), the Hurrians, together with your wives, your children, and your children's children and together with your country….” [6]

Likewise, in a treaty which the Assyrian king Esarhaddon had made with Baal, king of Tyre, we read in its concluding portion what the gods would do to the king of Tyre if he broke the terms of the treaty:

[May Ninlil, who resides in Nineveh, "tie to you" a swift dagger]. [May] Ishtar, [who resides in Arbela, not grant] you [mercy and forgiveness]. May Gula, the great physician, [put illness and weariness in] your [hearts], an unhealing sore in your body, bathe [in your own blood as if in water]. May the Seven gods, the warrior gods, cause your [downfall] with their [fierce] weapons. May Bethel and Anath-Bethel deliver you to a man-eating lion. May the great gods of heaven and earth, the gods of Assyria, the gods of Akkad, and the gods of Eber-nari curse you with an indissoluble curse. May Baal-sameme, Baal-malage and Baal-saphon raise an evil wind against your ships, to undo their moorings, tear out their mooring pole, may a strong wave sink them in the sea, a violent tide [. . . ] against you. May Melqart and Eshmun deliver your land to destruction, your people to be deported; from your land [ . . . ] . May they make disappear food for your mouth, clothes for your body, oil for your ointment. May Astarte break your bow in the thick of battle, and have you crouch at the feet of your enemy, may a foreign enemy divide your belongings. [7]

So it was common for kings to invoke the names of the gods of the nations with whom they interacted, as Esarhaddon had invoked the names of the idols of the Tyrians here, as well as those of the idols of Mesopotamia, and therefore the mention of the Name of Yahweh by Cyrus in his decree to the people of Judah is not only quite plausible, but even quite certain. While the decree itself is not found in Persian inscriptions, there are not many Persian inscriptions which have survived. The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus at the University of Pennsylvania, which is our source for this inscription, is fairly comprehensive but has records of only 6 inscriptions from Cyrus II, the Cyrus Cylinder which we have cited here, and five others which are all quite broken, and most of their text is now apparently missing.

Now, briefly returning to the Cyrus Cylinder: In another place in his inscription, Cyrus had made the assertion that even the gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo (from which word the names Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus are derived) had even loved him and desired his rule:

I, Cyrus (II), king of the world, great king, strong king, king of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters (of the world), son of Cambyses (I) — great king, king of Anšan — grandson of Cyrus (I) — great king, kin[g of] Anšan — descendant of Teispes — great king, king of Anšan — the eternal seed of kingship, whose reign the gods Bēl (Marduk) and Nabû love and whose k[ingshi]p they desired to their heart’s content. When I peacefully entered i[n]to Babylon, amidst joy and happiness, I took up (my) lordly residence in the palace of the ruler. [8]

With this mention of Teispes, I must also take a short digression to address another misconception that sometimes arises in Christian Identity circles. Some Identity Christians have made the claim that Cyrus and the other kings of the Achaemenid dynasty, a name by which Cyrus had even identified himself in his inscriptions, must have been of the tribe of Judah in captivity. However Teispes is said to have ruled Anshan from 675 to 640 BC, and Achaemenes, who was evidently the founder of the dynasty, from 688 to 675 BC. While these dates are always uncertain, it is evident that these kings ruled long before the time of the grandfather of Cyrus II, who is known as Cyrus I, king of Anshan. All of these names are Persian, and they are not Hebrew or even Akkadian.

As we had explained in our discussion of the Akkadian language in part 18 of our commentary on Genesis, titled The Hebrews, perhaps about eighteen hundred years before the time of Cyrus II, Sargon of Akkad had conquered Elam, but the Elamites resisted the use of Akkadian as their primary language, which Sargon had tried to force. Anshan is mentioned in Sumerian inscriptions which are nearly that old. The Judahites were not taken into Assyrian captivity until about 701 BC, and even if they could have taken a foothold in the Zagros Mountains and established a kingdom within 12 years, which is highly doubtful, it is even more unlikely that they would have consistently adopted and exclusively used the language of the Elamites among whom they would have been found in that same short period. They would also have been consistently using Elamite personal names, which is more implausible. So I cannot accept the possibility that the Achaemenid kings were anything but Persian, and their empire is consistently identified with Elam through Scripture.

However Cyrus II was a descendant of Adam through Noah, Shem and Elam, and therefore he had an Adamic spirit and would be considered a child of God, as Paul had explained to the Ionians of Athens, in Acts chapter 17. The Ionians were descendants of Adam through Noah and Japheth, from his son Javan. Speaking of Yahweh God to the Ionian Greeks, Paul had said in part that “… as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” [Acts 17:28]. So Yahweh’s having spoken of Cyrus in this manner, and His employment of Cyrus in this crucial moment of the history of Judah, is not exceptional, since He had dealt similarly with many other Adamic men who had descended from lines other than that of the ancient Israelites, the pharaoh of the time of Joseph being another notable example.

Prophesying the fall of Babylon in Isaiah chapter 13, which was written, as we have said, at least a hundred and twenty years before Babylon would even become an empire, we find another reference to a man which must also be a description of Cyrus I. So in the opening verses of Isaiah chapter 13 we read:

1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. 2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. 4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. 5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. 6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

While in our commentary on Isaiah chapter 13 we had focused on different aspects of this prophecy, and especially on the far-vision fulfillment and future fall of Mystery Babylon, we did state in relation to verses 4 and 5 of that chapter that “Yahweh’s will on the earth is executed through his people Israel….” Since the Persians had conquered Babylon in league with the Medes, and since many Israelites of the Assyrian captivity had been settled in the cities of the Medes, it is evident that there were a significant number of Israelites among the armies of Cyrus II. However now we shall read one more verse from Isaiah chapter 13, which can only describe this same Cyrus:

12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

This is later qualified further on in the chapter:

17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

In our commentary on that chapter, because it is pertinent to this discussion of Isaiah chapter 45, we had made a lengthy comment in reference to verse 12 of Isaiah chapter 13, and the description of the “man more precious than gold” which certainly seems to be a reference to Cyrus, and we began by stating:

This is evidently a reference to Cyrus, who is a subject of further prophesy in Isaiah chapters 44 and 45. 

So having made that comment, we cited this portion of Isaiah from chapter 44 verse 23 through verse 4 of this chapter, and we may have done better to cite through verse 8 of this chapter, as Yahweh continues to address Cyrus at least as far as that point, and perhaps even further. Then following the lengthy citation, we continued our assessment of these mentions of Cyrus in these later chapters 44 and 45 and we wrote, in part: 

The assurances that the passage concerning Cyrus is in reference to Babylon is evident where the historical Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC, or about a hundred and sixty years after Isaiah had written those words [in Isaiah chapters 44 and 45], had decreed that the temple would be rebuilt, and it was he who had first allowed those who had been taken into captivity by the Assyrians and the Babylonians to return to their original homelands. So Cyrus was used by Yahweh to pave the way for the rebuilding of the temple, the seventy weeks period of Jerusalem prophesied in Daniel chapter 9, and the ministry of Christ in the closing weeks of those seventy weeks. Cyrus, who called himself the “king of Anshan” in his own inscriptions, seems to have been of the tribe of Elam, a son of Shem, since his fathers had been the hereditary kings of Anshan, a city on the eastern end of Elam, at least several hundred miles east-southeast of ancient Babylon. Sometimes it is surmised that perhaps Cyrus descended from the captivity of Israel, but this cannot be determined from history, as the historical accounts only support an association with Elam. According to the ancient historian Herodotus, the mother of Cyrus was said to have been a daughter of Astyages, the king of the Medes. [7]

Flavius Josephus supports the account of Herodotus, where he describes Darius, a prominent officer of Cyrus’ government, as a kinsman of Cyrus and states that Darius was sixty-two years old when he had taken Babylon for Cyrus, and “He was the son of Astyages, and had another name among the Greeks”, in Antiquities of the Judaeans, Book 10 . According to the account of Herodotus, Astyages was the maternal grandfather of Cyrus II. Continuing with our commentary on Isaiah 13:12, there is one more rather short paragraph:

Now it should be apparent, that here Isaiah has a vision not only of the Babylonian empire, but also of the Persian empire which had succeeded it, which becomes explicit a little later in this chapter where the Word of Yahweh says “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,” and the people of the Persian empire, which was a confederacy of the Persians and the Medes, were frequently referred to as Medes in the early Greek writings of the classical period, especially in the Tragic Poets.

There should be little doubt that Cyrus I, the king of Persia, was an instrumental figure in facilitating the future development of the Seventy Weeks Kingdom of Daniel chapter 9, which produced the Second Temple as well as Yahshua Christ, the Messiah of that same chapter, and here Cyrus II is explicitly connected to Yahweh’s plan of salvation for the children of Israel. Now, as it was in verse 4, in verse 5 Yahweh continues to address this Cyrus:

5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 

It is possible that Cyrus himself had seen these very words as they had been written by the prophet Isaiah. This is found in the account of Cyrus related by Flavius Josephus, and although since Josephus is the only known source for this, it may be considered apocryphal, it may indeed have been historical, the leaders of the Judaean captives, such as Zerubbabel, who had communicated with Cyrus need not have kept their own writings as secrets among themselves, they certainly must have had copies of Isaiah and the other earlier prophets, and therefore it is worthwhile mentioning here. So the following is from Antiquities of the Judaeans, Book 11, from the very beginning of the book:

1 In the first year of the reign of Cyrus which was the seventieth from the day that our people were moved out of their own land into Babylon, God pitied the captivity and calamity of these poor people, according as he had foretold to them by Jeremiah the prophet, before the destruction of the city, 2 that after they had served Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, and after they had undergone that servitude seventy years, he would restore them again to the land of their fathers, and they should build their temple, and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And these things God did afford them; 3 for he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write this throughout all Asia:-- “Thus says Cyrus the king: Since God Almighty has appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship; 4 for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.”

The chronology of Josephus us far from perfect, and actually defective in many ways, but that alone does not discredit anything which he had conveyed as history. It was actually only 46 years from the destruction of the temple until Cyrus had taken Babylon, but it was 57 years since the first taking of hostages from Judah to Babylon, where we read in 2 Kings chapter 24, speaking of Nebuchadnezzar II: “15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16 And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.” Among those hostages were the then-future prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, both of whom wrote from captivity in Babylon.

Now Josephus speaks of the revelation of this prophecy of Isaiah to Cyrus in Babylon:

5 This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies; for this prophet said that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision:-- “My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple.” 6 This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and admired the divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfil what was so written; so he called for the most eminent Judaeans that were in Babylon, and said to them, that he gave them permission to go back to their own country, and to rebuild their city of Jerusalem, and the temple of God, 7 for that he would be their assistant, and that he would write to the rulers and governors that were in the neighbourhood of their country of Judea, that they should contribute to them gold and silver for the building of the temple, and, besides that, beasts for their sacrifices. ”

Josephus was roughly accurate concerning the time of Isaiah’s writing relative to the time of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, but that is only true of at least most of the earlier chapters of Isaiah. From the time when these chapters were apparently written, after the failed siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, it is only about one hundred and fifteen years before the temple was demolished. But for one reason or another, while Zerubbabel had returned to Jerusalem with about forty-two thousand men of Judah within a few years, and they laid a foundation upon which they would rebuild the temple, it is already the reign of Cambyses, and that is when the building had been halted, and delayed for at least another eight or nine years until the reign of Darius I.

According to the prophet Daniel, although it is in a different context, the Persian kings could not change their laws, which we read in Daniel chapter 6: “8 Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.” Around a hundred years after Daniel had written, the Greek historian Herodotus, in Book 3 chapter 31 of The Histories, had also attested, albeit rather indirectly, that Persian kings had no power to change existing Persian laws, where Cambyses is depicted as having inquired of the judges of Persia whether there was a law forbidding him from marrying his own sister. Perhaps Josephus was correct, and he was naturally wicked, but at the least, he was nothing like his noble and beneficent father, Cyrus I. In a kingdom, a decree of a king would indeed have the force of law, and with the inquiry of Cambyses the judges would have consulted the rulings of the kings before him, to see if any of them made any decrees forbidding such a marriage. But Cambyses did not necessarily defy the previous decree of Cyrus I concerning Jerusalem, rather the text suggests that he only delayed its execution, where we read in Ezra chapter 4 that he wrote to the governors who had authority over Jerusalem and said: “21 Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until another commandment shall be given from me.”

Before the succession of his son Cambyses II, Cyrus II was king for eight or nine more years after having taken Babylon, and he died around 530 BC. Although their accounts vary, the Greek historians Ctesias of Cnidus and Herodotus of Halicarnassus, both of the 5th century BC and both of whom came from cities in western Anatolia which had been ruled by the Persians, also both describe Cyrus I as having been killed in a war against the Massagetae, the Scythians of the Oxus and Jaxartes River valleys east of the Caspian Sea [these rivers are now called the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, respectively]. So with the death of Cyrus, the building in Jerusalem was delayed until the rule of Darius I, and commenced in his second year, according to Ezra chapter 4 (Ezra 4:24). Darius is said to have ascended to the throne in 521 BC, and if work commenced in 520, it was finished four years later, as we read in Ezra chapter 6: “15 And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.” So the delay filled out the seventy years of the prophecy of Jeremiah. In that same chapter of Ezra there is a description of Darius where he had searched out and read the earlier decree of Cyrus, after which he had instructed Tatnai, the “governor beyond the river”, to “7 Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Judaeans and the elders of the Judaeans build this house of God in his place. 8 Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king's goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expenses be given unto these men, that they be not hindered.” Therefore the temple was built, and it was completed just as the seventy years of the prophecy of Jeremiah had also been completed, no sooner, and no later. 

Yahweh is still speaking to Cyrus in verse 7 of Isaiah chapter 45:

7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. 8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. 

The mention of salvation is yet another reference to the salvation of Israel which would come in the person of Yahshua Christ, for which Cyrus I was instrumental, and an instrument in the hands of Yahweh, by which He had set the stage for the Passion of Christ. Yahweh willing, we shall commence at this point, and discuss other aspects of this passage, when we return to this commentary on Isaiah.

But probably the most interesting portion of the Cyrus Cylinder, which is the inscription of Cyrus I after he had taken Babylon, we have not yet read, but we shall read it now. First, however, we must note that here in Isaiah chapter 45, the Word of Yahweh had said in verse 1: “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him…” Then in verse 3 Yahweh addresses Cyrus and says that He does what he has promised “that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” Then the Word of Yahweh had said in verses 4 and 5, where it is still addressing Cyrus: “4 … I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. 5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.”

Now, from the Cyrus Cylinder, Cyrus himself had proclaimed that: “He (Marduk) inspected (and) examined all of the lands, everyone of them, and constantly sought out a righteous king, the desire of his heart. He took Cyrus (II), the king of Anšan, into his hand, called (him) by his name, (and) proclaimed him (lit. “his name”) to be the ruler of the entirety of everything.” [9] So Cyrus, from his pagan perspective, had perceived what Yahweh, the One True God, had promised many years earlier in Isaiah. He understood that he was anointed by god, but in his blindness, he had the wrong god.

This is not the end of our discussions of Babylon or of Cyrus, since the subject arises again in the opening verses of Isaiah chapter 46. With this it also becomes evident, that Cyrus also serves here as a type for the second advent of Christ, the warrior Messiah who shall destroy His enemies after the fall of Mystery Babylon. Cyrus marched into Babylon after it was already taken by his people, under the leadership of his general Gobryas, and Christ has promised to return as it is prophesied in Revelation chapter 19, after the Fall of Mystery Babylon as it is described in Revelation chapter 18, although like Cyrus had also, Christ shall engage in further war until all of His enemies are defeated. However unlike Cyrus, Christ will not die at the hand of the Scythians. Not every prophetic type in Scripture is a perfect blueprint for the events which they foreshadow.

Footnotes

1 Cyrus I, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_I, accessed September 18th, 2025. [I could not locate the inscriptions described in this Wikipedia article at the Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus or in other older sources, such as the inscriptions published by D. D. Luckenbill.]

2 Cyrus II 1, also known as CB²a or the Cyrus Cylinder, lines 1 to 5, Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions online, Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus, https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ario/Q006653, accessed September 18th, 2025.

3 ibid., lines 15 to 19.

4 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd edition, James Pritchard, editor, 1969, Harvard University Press, pp. 301, 306.

5 Cyrus II 1, lines 31 to 32.

6 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, pp. 205-206.

7 ibid., pp. 533-534.

8 Cyrus II 1, lines 20-22.

9 ibid., lines 12 to 13.