KING OF PERSIA · EXILE & RETURN

Cyrus. The king who let the captives go home.

REIGNEDi

Not given c. 539–530 BC (dates vary)

CAPITAL

Babylon

HOUSE

Line of Teispes (Cyrus Cylinder) 1st of 9 in Persia

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“The LORD "saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem…”

PROPHETS

Isaiah · Jeremiah · Daniel

PERSIA: 9 RULERS CYRUS → NEHEMIAH

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

BABYLON

Belshazzar

THE MEDES

Darius the Mede

PERSIA AFTER HIM

Darius

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · AFTER 539 BC

The Cyrus Cylinder

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · 539 BC

The Nabonidus Chronicle

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · ABOUT 430 BC

Herodotus

SUCCESSION

Before and after

THE REALM

Babylon and the places of the account

Persia. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • The LORD "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." Isaiah 44:28
  • "Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him"; "I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me." Isaiah 45:1 Isaiah 45:4
  • "He shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts." Isaiah 45:13
  • "The LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia", that the word spoken by Jeremiah might be fulfilled. 2 Chronicles 36:22 Ezra 1:1
  • His proclamation: "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." Ezra 1:2

DEALINGS

Dealings with God's people

  • He returned the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had put in the house of his gods. Ezra 1:7
  • Ezra's record says the house was to be built at "the place where they offered sacrifices", its expenses "given out of the king’s house". Ezra 6:3–4
  • He charged the people to build the house at Jerusalem and granted materials from Lebanon. Ezra 1:2–3 Ezra 3:7
  • Zerubbabel and Jeshua refused the help of their neighbours, saying "we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us". Ezra 4:3
  • "Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem." Ezra 1:3
  • Chronicles says the exiles served the king of Babylon "until the reign of the kingdom of Persia". 2 Chronicles 36:20

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

Each mark sits at the year of the reign the Bible gives for it.

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

PROPHETS

The prophets who spoke about him

  • Is Isaiah “He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure”
  • Je Jeremiah Chronicles and Ezra say Cyrus's proclamation fulfilled "the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah", the seventy years of Babylon. Jeremiah himself does not name Cyrus.
  • Da Daniel “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel”

TWO ACCOUNTS

Where the accounts differ

The proclamation

2 CHRONICLES

EZRA

The decree as Ezra gives it twice

EZRA

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S NUMBERS

No years given

Scripture gives his first and third years only.

KING OF BABYLON, OCTOBER 539 – AUGUST 530 BC (PARKER AND DUBBERSTEIN, 1942)

c. 539–530 BC[3]

Babylon fell on 13 October 539 and Cyrus entered on 29 October (the Nabonidus Chronicle); the last tablets of his ninth year date to August 530, when his death seems to have been reported. His first full year at Babylon began in spring 538.

HERODOTUS: 29 YEARS IN ALL (ABOUT 559–530 BC)

c. 559–530 BC[7][13][3]

Herodotus says he reigned "thirty years wanting one"; T. G. Pinches (1915) gives the same 29 years and adds that Cyrus ruled Media for 11 of them and Babylonia for 9. Counting back from 530 gives about 559.

KEIL (1872): REIGNED ALONE AT BABYLON FROM 536 BC

c. 536–529 BC[28]

Keil gives two years to Darius the Mede first and puts Cyrus's death in 529.

No: chapters 40–66 come from a prophet of the exile, writing when Cyrus was already rising

the critical scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries, as described by G. L. Robinson (1915) and the Pulpit Commentary

On this view a prophet in Babylonia about 550–538 BC wrote of Cyrus; Robinson reports that by 1915 many critics further divided these chapters among later writers. The naming of Cyrus is, the Pulpit Commentary says, one of the main grounds of the view.[21][44]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 11

2 Chronicles 36 Ezra 1 Ezra 3 Ezra 4 Ezra 5 Ezra 6 Isaiah 44 Isaiah 45 Daniel 1 Daniel 6 Daniel 10

PASSAGES · 12

2 Chronicles 36:20–23 Ezra 1:1–11 Ezra 3:7 Ezra 4:3–5 Ezra 5:13–17 Ezra 6:3–5 Ezra 6:14 Isaiah 44:24–28 Isaiah 45:1–13 Daniel 1:21 Daniel 6:28 Daniel 10:1

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not tell how Cyrus took Babylon, how long he reigned, or how he died.
  • Scripture does not name Cambyses, the son who reigned after him (the Cyrus Cylinder names him).
  • Scripture never says Cyrus worshipped the LORD; Isaiah says "thou hast not known me" (Isa 45:4).

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • From the textScripture calls him "Cyrus king of Persia" and "Cyrus the Persian", and Isaiah names him twice. This page treats the Cyrus of Isaiah, Chronicles, Ezra and Daniel as one king. 2 Chronicles 36:22 Ezra 1:1 Daniel 6:28 Isaiah 44:28 Isaiah 45:1
  • Scholars' viewIsaiah's "righteous man from the east" and "ravenous bird from the east" do not name him; that they mean Cyrus is an interpretation, held for example by G. L. Robinson (1915). Isaiah 41:2 Isaiah 46:11 [21]

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), pp. 380–384 (the Cylinder of Cyrus, lines 12–35).
  • R. F. Harper (ed.), Assyrian and Babylonian Literature: Selected Translations (1901), pp. 168–171 ("The Annals of Nabonidus").
  • R. A. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.–A.D. 45 (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 24; dates cited as facts only) (1942), pp. 11–15 (kings' reigns) and the tables of years.
  • L. W. King and R. C. Thompson, The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia (1907), Persian text, §§ I–IV and X–XIII, pp. 1–13.
  • A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (1923), No. 6, pp. 15–16 (introduction and translation).
  • A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (1923), No. 30, pp. 108–114 (introduction and translation).
  • Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay, The History of Herodotus, vol. 1 (1890), Book I §§191, 214.
  • Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay, The History of Herodotus, vol. 1 (1890), Book III §88.
  • Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay, The History of Herodotus, vol. 2 (1890), Book VII §§4, 61, 114; Book IX §§109–112.
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Darius", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections (1)–(3).
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Ahasuerus", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 1, 2 and 4.
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Artaxerxes", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections (1)–(3).
  • T. G. Pinches, "Cyrus", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 9, 10, 12 and 14.
  • Burton Scott Easton, "Xerxes", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Zerubbabel", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 1, 3 and 4.
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Tirshatha", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Nehemiah", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 3 and 5.
  • James Crichton, "Gedaliah", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), (1), sections 2–3.
  • John Urquhart, "Vashti", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • John Urquhart, "Esther", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • George L. Robinson, "Isaiah", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), the sections on chapters 40–66 and on the critical view.
  • Gerson B. Levi, Kaufmann Kohler and George A. Barton, "Ahasuerus", Jewish Encyclopedia vol. 1 (1901), biblical data and critical view.
  • Emil G. Hirsch and Isaac Broydé, "Ezra the Scribe", Jewish Encyclopedia vol. 5 (1903).
  • Joseph Jacobs, M. Seligsohn, Morris Jastrow Jr. and D. S. Margoliouth, "Ezra, Book of", Jewish Encyclopedia vol. 5 (1903).
  • James Ussher, The Annals of the World (English translation of the Annales) (1658), The sixth Age of the World, pp. 108–112 and 118 (read from the page scans, leaves 59–64).
  • L. McFall, "A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles", Bibliotheca Sacra 148 (facts only) (1991), numbered texts 1–68; page numbers of the author's PDF.
  • W. F. Albright, "The Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 100 (facts only) (1945), Chronological table, pp. 20–22.
  • C. F. Keil, tr. M. G. Easton, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Keil and Delitzsch) (1872), note on Dan 9:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. S. Taylor, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Keil and Delitzsch) (1873), note on Ezra 1:8 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. S. Taylor, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Keil and Delitzsch) (1873), note on Ezra 6:14 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. A. Harper, The Books of the Chronicles (Keil and Delitzsch) (1872), note on 1 Chr 3:17–19 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. D. Patrick, The Prophecies of Jeremiah (Keil and Delitzsch) (1880), note on Jer 41:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. E. Ryle, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1893), note on Ezra 1:8 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. E. Ryle, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1893), note on Neh 2:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers: 1 Chronicles (c. 1878–1884), note on 1 Chr 3:19 (read on Bible Hub).
  • S. R. Driver, The Book of Daniel (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1900), note on Dan 5:31 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Daniel (1880–1897), note on Dan 6:28 and the "Excursus on Darius the Mede" (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Esther (1880–1897), note on Esth 2:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • A. W. Streane, The Book of Esther (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1907), note on Esth 2:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1748–1763), note on Esth 2:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Jeremiah (1880–1897), note on Jer 41:1, reporting H. Graetz (read on Bible Hub).
  • A. W. Streane, The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1881), note on Jer 41:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818), note on Jer 41:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Isaiah (1880–1897), note on Isa 44:28 (read on Bible Hub).

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