Bible Character Studies: Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus was the King of the Persian Empire in 550-530 B.C.  It was the largest empire the world had yet seen, encompassing most of the known world. He brought every nation into subjection except three, which his son later added. He defeated King Belshazzar in Babylon (Dan. 5). The first year of his reign was 538 B.C. He was born around 598-600 and died in battle in 530 B.C. His proclamation, instructing the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple was a fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy 175 years earlier (Isa. 44:28, 46:1-4). The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus says the prophet Daniel, who was Cyrus’ prime minister read this prophecy to him, and in response he declared this proclamation. Daniel played a part in the favourable treatment the Jews received.

It also fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy of 70 years of Babylonian captivity, now at the end. God sovereignly used him, by stirring up his spirit. We know that God is the First Cause of all events in history. Here we see that “the king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” Prov. 21:1 Cyrus made an oral proclamation, by herald, followed by a written record. He commissioned the building of the second temple after Solomon’s magnificent temple had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. leading to the third and final wave of deportees.

He respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered. This was a successful model of centralized administration via administrators known as satraps (see Esther chap. 1). In the 1970’s, the Cyrus cylinder was discovered. It was the oldest record of a declaration of human rights. He was ahead of his time. In it he declares in his own words, “I returned (the images) of the gods to the sacred centres (on the other side of) the Tigris whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for a long time, and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned (them to) their dwellings.”

He issued an edict of restoration. He acknowledged that the God of heaven had sovereignly given all the kingdoms of earth into his hand, and had commanded him, by name, to build Him a house in Jerusalem. Whoever could not personally go was to help by giving supplies towards it. He also released all the temple furnishings which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away and stored in his temple. These were miraculously preserved by God until this time (2 Chron. 36:7, Jer. 27:22).

Cyrus' proclamation is itself a picture of the general call of the gospel for people to leave this world and go to the Promised Land.