God Promised that He Would Raise Up a Persian King to End the Jewish Captivity-and Names Him-by Name; Cyrus, 150 Years Prior to His Birth

by Chris Parker

The Persian empire, centered in what is currently Iran was established around 550 years before Christ. The Persian empire was the largest empire in history spanning a wide territory and famously included wars with Babylon and Greece. The empire was founded by Cyrus the Great and lasted about 200 hundred years, eventually conquered by Alexander the Great.

Israel Goes into Captivity

Israel had split between Israel and Judah. Both Israel (the 10 tribes) and Judah (two tribes) continued to sin against God and thus were exiled from the promised land; Israel. The Assyrians under Sargon II completed the defeat and exile of Israel about 200 years prior to the exile and captivity of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who destroyed the temple which was in Jerusalem and carried off its treasures.

Through the prophets, God had ordained exile for the Judeans (Jews) for 70 years. The 70-year period of exile was for the two tribes of Judah. The ten tribes of Israel are forever lost; they never returned from the dispersion or exile. Their eventual fate is often discussed or argued about, but no one knows for certain what happened to them.

God, through the prophets, promised that the Jews would be “restored” to Israel, to Jerusalem and that the temple would be rebuilt. The temple that we read about in the New Testament is the new temple that was built after the Jews were restored to Jerusalem after the period of captivity.

God used the Babylonians to carry out his punishment of Israel and he would use another Gentile King and nation to restore Israel. What is unusual perhaps, is that God named Cyrus, known as Cyrus the Great, by name as the one who would free the Jews from the Babylonians and restore them to Israel.

God made the prophecy in Isaiah and in Jeremiah but it is in Isaiah that he prophesies specifically about Cyrus, the Gentile/Pagan King-more than 150 years prior to Cyrus’ birth!

Isaiah 44:24

I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens,

who spreads out the earth by myself, 25 who foils the signs of false prophets  and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, 26 who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’ 27 who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry,  and I will dry up your streams,’ 28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd  and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’

Isaiah 45 “This is what the Lord says to his anointed,  to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him  and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him  so that gates will not be shut: 2 I will go before you  and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze  and cut through bars of iron. 3 I will give you hidden treasures,  riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord,   the God of Israel, who summons you by name. 4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,  of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name  and bestow on you a title of honor,  though you do not acknowledge me.

5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;  apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you,  though you have not acknowledged me,6 so that from the rising of the sun  to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me.  I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7 I form the light and create darkness,  I bring prosperity and create disaster;  I, the Lord, do all these things. 8 “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;  let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it;  I, the Lord, have created it.

9 “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,  those who are nothing but potsherds  among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter,     ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say,  ‘The potter has no hands’? 10 Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother,  ‘What have you brought to birth?’

11 “This is what the Lord says—  the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come,   do you question me about my children,  or give me orders about the work of my hands? 12 It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens;  I marshaled their starry hosts. 13 I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:  I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city  and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.”

The book of Isaiah, by most estimates was written between 739 and 681 B.C. Cyrus began his reign in Babylon around 537 B.C., a difference of 144 to 202 years. Unlike some other well-known biblical characters, Cyrus the Great was a well-known historical figure as well.

Summing up biblical history around these events; the Book of Daniel largely takes place within the captivity. You may recall that in Daniel 3 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three Jewish men in exile were thrown into a furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar for refusing to bow down to his golden statue. They were preserved through their encounter with the furnace. Through this period Daniel interpreted dreams for Nebuchadnezzar and rose to prominence in his government

Nebuchadnezzar’s came to fear God, but his son Belshazzar gave a great feast and brought in gold and silver vessels from the temple of God to drink from with is guests while giving praise to the gods of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood. During this feast, Belshazzar saw a giant handwriting a message on a wall of the palace; : MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN, which Daniel interpreted to foretell the end of his life and his kingdom.

King Cyrus the great, the Mede, the Persian took over the Kingdom that very night according to scripture.

In Ezra, --we see the beginning of the fulfillment of the restoration of the Jews by the man and in the manner promised by God (also in 2 Chronicles).

Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return

Ezrav1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “ ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4 And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”

5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. 6 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

 7 Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. 8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9 This was the inventory: 10 gold bowls, 30 matching silver bowls, 410 other articles, 1,000 11 In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Of course, there was opposition to the building of the temple by the Jews so that the rebuilding did not take place immediately. After King Cyrus was killed in battle his son reigned for a short time and after him, King Darius of Persia reigned, and after him King Xerxes.

It is extraordinary that the Jews were restored to Israel and Jerusalem by a succession of Persian Kings beginning with Cyrus the Great.

Ezra 6: 14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 

As I said, Cyrus the Great was an historical figure as well as a biblical one. One of the reasons he is known is an artifact known as the Cyrus Cylinder.

In the Cyrus Cylinder, (pictured) a cuneiform tablet now in the British Museum, Cyrus describes how he had conquered Babylon (October 539 BCE). It is interesting because the Persian king presents himself to his new subjects as the perfect ruler, carefully copying Babylonian ideas about good governance.

It was King Xerxes of Persia, who reigned after King Darius who engaged Leonidas of Sparta in the battle of Thermopylae from which the fantasy movie; the 300 was derived.

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