Cyrus

Overview

• Testament: Old
• Role: Persian king who decreed the return of Jewish exiles to Jerusalem; called “the LORD’s anointed” in Isaiah
• Family: Son of Cambyses I; founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire
• Key Books: 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Isaiah

Biography

Cyrus II, known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the king who issued the famous Cyrus Decree in 538 BC, permitting the Jewish exiles to return to Judah and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. His reign (approximately 559–530 BC) transformed the ancient Near East, and his treatment of conquered peoples — marked by relative religious tolerance — stood in sharp contrast to the policies of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires.

The most stunning aspect of Cyrus’s biblical role is that Isaiah 44–45 calls him by name as “the LORD’s anointed” (Isaiah 45:1) and identifies him as the one who would say of Jerusalem, “She shall be built,” and of the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” Scholars debate whether this was written in the 8th century BC by the historical Isaiah as genuine predictive prophecy, or in the 6th century by a later author. In either case, the biblical text presents Cyrus as a pagan king sovereignly used by God to accomplish purposes he himself did not fully understand: “I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me” (Isaiah 45:4).

The Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay barrel discovered in Babylon in 1879 and now housed in the British Museum, records Cyrus’s policy of restoring exiled peoples to their homelands and rebuilding their temples. This corroborates the biblical account and provides external historical confirmation of the kind of decree described in Ezra 1. The cylinder specifically mentions the restoration of gods and peoples to their cities, though it does not name the Jews specifically.

Ezra 1 records the text of Cyrus’s decree in full: he acknowledges that “the LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” Whether Cyrus had genuine theological knowledge of Israel’s God or was speaking diplomatically is debated, but the effect was to fulfill the prophecy of Jeremiah that the exile would last seventy years (Ezra 1:1; Jeremiah 29:10). Under his decree, Zerubbabel led the first wave of returning exiles.

Key Events

• Conquers Babylon in 539 BC, ending the Babylonian empire
• Issues the Cyrus Decree in 538 BC permitting Jewish return to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1–4)
• Returns the temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem (Ezra 1:7–11)
• Named by Isaiah as “the LORD’s anointed” who will authorize Jerusalem’s rebuilding (Isaiah 44:28–45:1)

Relationships

• Cambyses I - father
• Mandane - mother (daughter of Astyages, Median king)
• Darius the Mede - subordinate or associate king at Babylon
• Zerubbabel - led the Jewish exiles back under Cyrus’s decree

Important Verses

• Isaiah 44:28
• Isaiah 45:1
• Ezra 1:1–4
• 2 Chronicles 36:22–23

Cross-References

• Isaiah 44–45 - Called by name as God’s anointed before his birth
• Ezra 1 - Text of the decree and beginning of the return
• 2 Chronicles 36 - Cyrus’s decree closes the Hebrew canon in its traditional order
• Daniel 6 - Darius the Mede (associated with Cyrus’s conquest) figures in Daniel’s story

Notes

• The naming of Cyrus by name in Isaiah 44–45 is one of the most remarkable instances of prophetic specificity in Scripture, predating his birth by at least a century on the traditional dating
• Cyrus is one of the very few non-Israelite figures in the Old Testament explicitly called “anointed” (mashiach), the same term used for Israel’s kings and foreshadowing the Messiah
• 2 Chronicles ends with the Cyrus Decree, and Ezra begins with the same decree — this literary overlap may suggest that the Chronicler intended the return from exile as the beginning of a new exodus