(6) Cyrus and Prophecy. The significance of the rise of Cyrus is vividly portrayed by the prophetic words to the exiles in Babylon. Words of comfort addressed to the exiles assure them (Is. xl:t.2) that their punishment will soon cease. They shall return to their home-land, inhabit it and rebuild their cities and restore the waste places (Is. xliv :26). This shall be accomplished by a deliverer who is already on his way to con quer. "Who hath raised up one from thc East. whom he calleth in righteousness to his foot ? he giveth nations before him and maketh him rule over kings; he giveth them as the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow. He pur sueth them, and passeth on safely; even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. Who bath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? 1, Jehovah, the first, and with the last. I am he" (Is. xli:2-4). Again we find. "Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed (selected), Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut.... For Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, my chosen, I have called thee by name: I have surnamed thee, though thou halt not known me. I am Jehovah, and there is none else; be side me there is no God: I will gird thee. though thou bast not known me" (Is. xlv :t. 4. 5). Cyrus is distinctly designated as the agent of Jehovah to conquer the nations. Ilk mission was a provi dential one, and in no sense because he was a worshiper of Jehovah, for the sake of his servant, Jacob.
To deliver the Jews it was necessary that the great Babylon, the pride of her kings, the yoke of her subjects. should fall. Numerous prophecies from Jeremiah down had pictured her doom. But her conqueror is now at hand. "Come down and sit in the duct. 0 virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, 0 (laughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more he called tender and delicate Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, 0 daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more he called the lady of kingdoms." "Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy coun sels: let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee. Be hold they shall be as stubble, . . . there shall be none to save thee" ( Is. xlvii :1, s, 13, is). Nothing that they can muster shall be able to avert the cer tain doom of the wicked city. On the eve of its fall the prophet sees some of its consequences. "Bel (Merodach) bows down, Nebo crouches; their idols are upon the beasts, and upon the cat tle : the things that ye carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity" I s. 2). The substance of these and other prophecies is that Babylon must be humiliated, her proud position surrendered, and even her idols become a load for beasts and not a joy to their own worshipers. This last statement was fulfilled only in the sense that the idols, as contrasted with Jehovah's power who was bringing this about, fortress. Jerusalem, midway between western Asia
and Egypt, was the first step towards the con quest of that rival power. If Cyrus could con serve that advantage by aiding the Jews to build and hold it, he would be setting up one battlement in the face of Egypt's army. For one of his next strokes would be at that nation.
(8) Cyrus and the Jews. Cyrus issued his proclamation authorizing the return of the Jewish exiles in the first year of his sovereignty as king of Persia (Ezra i :1, B. C. 538). It is entirely reasonable to conjecture that, in accordance with his general principles of government, he issued many similar documents. The copy quoted in Ezra i :2-4 gives a few only of the specifications originally announced. In subsequent references to the document (Ezra iii :2-7; v:13-16; vi: i-s), we discover that elaborate provisions were made for the building of the temple, as well as for the reinauguration of the worship of Jehovah.
would be merely a burden of useless material. For as Cyrus himself claimed, it was under the auspi ces of the gods that he marched into Babylon. (See BABYLON.) (7) Evidences of Polytheism of Cyrus. His own appeals to the gods, and his avowal of their support, reveal Cyrus as a polytheist of a pro nounced type. It was not a matter of monothe ism. of a possible Zoroastrianism. that called his attention to the Jews, but other reasons of no mean proportions. (1) In addition to the restora tion and rehabilitation of captive and dethroned deities, he says (Cyl.,32) : "All of their peoples I gathered together and restored to their own dwelling-places." This definitely stated national policy gives us one reason for the royal proclama tion (Ezra i :2-4) issued in favor of the Jews. (2) It is altogether probable that Cyrus caught up from some one in Babylonia the mission which had been assigned him by the prophets. "Cyrus is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying of Jerusalem. She shall be built ; and to the temple. thy foundation shall be laid" (Is. xliv :28). (3) To occupy and hold that strong Cyrus had not overlooked anything that would contribute to the rapid reclamation of this western waste. The proclamation was of such scope as to include the Jews in any part of his realm. The citizens of the empire were also authorized, if they chose, to render assistance to the pilgrims to Palestine. How generally they responded to the royal edict is stated in Ezra ii. This pilgrimage of less than fifty thousand of the faithful to the land of their fathers relieved the administration of Cyrus from the presence, in any part of the realm, of a dissatisfied, disturbing Jewish element. It also populated and built up a section of his ter ritory which had been overrun and devastated by successive armies as Assyria and Babylonia. It likewise gave spirit to a people whose national life had been next to blotted out by a succession of well-deserved chastisements and captivities. In this event many of the brightest and most hopeful utterances of the great nrophets found their ful fillment, and their fruition. (The Monuments and the Old Testament. too°. Prof, Ira 111, Price, Ph. D., University of Chicago).