CinematicBible Songs
Listen NowSupport
ENESPT-BRFIL
ENESPT-BRFIL
New · FreePlay The Witnesses The in-depth puzzle battle quest through Bible history

People of the Bible

Cyrus

Named by Isaiah about a hundred and fifty years before he was born, and called God’s anointed without ever knowing him.

Cyrus takes Babylon and, in the first year of his reign, issues a proclamation that reverses imperial policy: the God of heaven has charged him to build a house in Jerusalem, and whoever among the exiles wishes to go up may go, and his neighbours are to help him with silver, gold, goods and beasts. He returns the vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken, counted out by number, five thousand four hundred of them. The same decree closes the book of Chronicles, which means the Hebrew Bible ends with permission to go home.

Where he appears2 Chronicles 36 · Ezra 1 · Isaiah 44 to 45

2 ChroniclesEzraIsaiah
Scroll down to the account
Cyrus

The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The Account of Cyrus

  1. 01

    Isaiah 44:28-45:7

    My shepherd, my anointed

    Named before he exists, told that the gates will be opened before him and the crooked places made straight, and told twice that he has not known the God who is girding him.

    Cyrus receives two astonishing titles before the passage twice states what he lacks. My shepherd. His anointed. Then, though thou hast not known me. The Book of Isaiah does not resolve the tension by quietly making the Persian king an Israelite worshipper. His commission is real, and his lack of recognition is real. God knows the name of the man who does not yet know him.

    The right hand of this conqueror is itself being held. Gates, iron bars, subdued nations, and hidden treasure might furnish a splendid royal account of personal achievement; here they are placed inside a repeated divine promise, I will. The reason is equally precise: for Jacob my servant's sake. Cyrus occupies the foreground, but Israel's restoration explains why he has been brought there.

    The passage then widens beyond one campaign. East and west are to know that there is no rival god. Light and darkness, peace and calamity do not belong to competing sovereigns. The hard final pair must not be softened into a promise that conquest will be pleasant. Jerusalem's rebuilding involves the breaking of other powers. The shepherd's appointment is not a compliment detached from a task.

    Verse by verse

    1. 44:28

      The chapter division falls between the titles shepherd and anointed. Reading across it preserves the continuous address concerning Cyrus and Jerusalem.

    2. 45:4-5

      The statement that Cyrus has not known God appears twice. Divine commissioning is not presented here as proof of his prior personal devotion.

    3. 45:7

      Evil translates Hebrew ra, which can mean calamity as well as moral evil. Its contrast here is with peace or well-being, so the line concerns disaster rather than a command to sin.

    Isaiah 44:28-45:7

    King James Version · 8 verses

    44:28That 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.

    45:1Thus 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;

    45:2I 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:

    45:3And 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.

    45:4For 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.

    45:5I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

    45:6That 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.

    45:7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

    Isaiah 44:28-45:7: My shepherd, my anointed
  2. 02

    2 Chronicles 36:22-23

    The last words of the Hebrew Bible

    The LORD stirred up his spirit and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom. The Hebrew order of the books ends on a sentence that is an invitation: let him go up.

    The final royal voice in the Book of Second Chronicles is Persian. After the kings of Judah, the broken walls, and the burnt house of God, the book does not end with a surviving Davidic king ordering a triumphant return. Cyrus issues the permission, and the text identifies the LORD as the one who stirred his spirit. The geography of authority has changed. The source of the promise has not.

    Jeremiah's word appears on both sides of the transition. In verse 21 it explains the years of desolation; in verse 22 it explains the opening of the road back. Judgment and return are not assigned to unrelated plans. Even the enormous royal claim, all the kingdoms of the earth, is followed by the recognition that those kingdoms have been given, and that the gift carries a charge concerning one ruined house in Judah.

    The ending stops before any building rises. Let him go up. Permission, presence, and a journey remain where the book closes. The last image is not a restored temple conveniently completed for the final page. It is an imperial proclamation making the work possible.

    Verse by verse

    1. 36:22

      The reference to Jeremiah follows the seventy years and the land's sabbath rest in verse 21. The transition is explicitly presented as fulfillment, not merely a change of dynasty.

    2. 36:22

      The proclamation is both announced throughout the kingdom and put in writing. Its authorization is public and documentary.

    3. 36:23

      Hebrew book order has varied; Chronicles is last in the ordering used by many Jewish editions, not in every Hebrew manuscript or printed arrangement.

    2 Chronicles 36:22-23

    King James Version · 2 verses

    36:22Now 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,

    36:23Thus 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.

    2 Chronicles 36:22-23: The last words of the Hebrew Bible
  3. 03

    Ezra 1:1-4

    Who is there among you of all his people

    The decree is voluntary rather than compulsory, and it puts the burden on the neighbours who stay: let the men of his place help him with silver, gold, goods and beasts, besides the freewill offering.

    The proclamation moves from all the kingdoms of the earth to silver, gold, goods, and beasts. That descent in scale is not an anticlimax. A return from exile requires provisions as well as permission. Cyrus' words give the project an imperial authorization, identify its destination twice, and attach material help to the people who are to undertake it. Jerusalem is not a vague spiritual direction. It is a city in Judah with a house to rebuild.

    The king speaks of the God of heaven, then of the LORD God of Israel. His decree recognizes a charge laid upon him; it does not require the reader to invent a complete account of his private religious commitments. The emphasis of the Book of Ezra falls on what the LORD has stirred and what the proclamation now permits.

    The invitation does not say that every Jewish person leaves. It calls for those belonging to God's people to go up and for assistance from the places where the survivors have been living. Alongside the royal initiative stand ordinary goods and voluntary offerings. The opening of restoration has room for a king's announcement and somebody else's pack animal.

    Verse by verse

    1. 1:1

      Ezra 5:13 calls this the first year of Cyrus as king of Babylon. The phrase need not mean the beginning of every phase of his earlier kingship.

    2. 1:3

      Cyrus authorizes the rebuilding; the people going to Jerusalem are to perform the work. The passage does not say that Cyrus personally travels there to build.

    3. 1:4

      Material assistance for the returning people is distinguished from the freewill offering for the house of God. Both forms of support appear in verse 6.

    Ezra 1:1-4

    King James Version · 4 verses

    1:1Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, 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,

    1:2Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

    1:3Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.

    1:4And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

    Ezra 1:1-4: Who is there among you of all his people
  4. 04

    Ezra 1:7-11

    The vessels counted out

    Everything Nebuchadnezzar had put in the house of his gods is brought out by the treasurer and numbered to Sheshbazzar, thirty chargers of gold, a thousand of silver, and the rest, five thousand four hundred in all.

    The same action is given to two kings with opposite results. Nebuchadnezzar brought forth the vessels from Jerusalem; Cyrus brought them forth from the house where they had been deposited. The repeated words make the reversal tangible. These are not newly purchased replacements chosen to make a fresh beginning look respectable. The passage identifies them by the temple from which they were taken.

    Then comes the counting. A treasurer, a named recipient, gold dishes, silver dishes, basons, and other vessels: restoration passes through an inventory. The Book of Ezra does not regard accounting as an embarrassment to its account of God's action. The public authorization is followed by a controlled transfer of property, and Sheshbazzar receives what he is to carry back with the returning exiles.

    The list does not include every object later imagination might place in the caravan. No ark of the covenant is named. Nor does the return of these vessels mean that the old temple has somehow escaped destruction. The loss remains part of their identity. What had been displayed in a conqueror's religious house is being entrusted for worship in Jerusalem again. Even the bowls have a history of exile.

    Verse by verse

    1. 1:7

      The identity of the vessels is traced to Nebuchadnezzar's removal of them. Ezra 6:5 later repeats the command to restore them to their place.

    2. 1:8

      Ezra 5:14 describes Sheshbazzar as governor, and 5:16 credits him with laying the foundation. His relationship to Zerubbabel is debated, not explained in this list.

    3. 1:9

      Chargers here means dishes or vessels, not horses. The list is an inventory of temple equipment.

    Ezra 1:7-11

    King James Version · 5 verses

    1:7Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods;

    1:8Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

    1:9And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives,

    1:10Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand.

    1:11All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.

    Ezra 1:7-11: The vessels counted out

Why it matters

Isaiah names him, calls him God’s shepherd and his anointed, says he will hold his right hand to subdue nations and open the two leaved gates, and adds the line that makes the whole thing uncomfortable and exact: I have surnamed you, though you have not known me. Cyrus is the clearest statement in the Old Testament that God uses people entirely outside the covenant to keep promises made inside it, and that the person being used need not be aware of it.

2 songs

The music

Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.

  1. Ezra 1:1-2:70

    Whosoever Will Go Up

    Play here
    Open song pageRead lyrics

  2. Isaiah 44:6-46:13

    I Have Called Thee by Thy Name

    Play here
    Open song pageRead lyrics

Nearby

All the people

Report an error on this page