Ezra 1:1-2:67

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Ezra 1:1

Ezra 1:1. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia This is that famous Cyrus who, one hundred and forty years before the temple was destroyed, and two hundred years before he was born, was mentioned by name in the prophecies of Isaiah, as raised up, and appointed by God, for the restoration of his people, Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1; Isaiah 45:4. This remarkable prediction, it is probable, Daniel showed to Cyrus, and that it induced him to give forth the following edict. So Prideaux... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Ezra 1:1-11

1:1-2:70 ZERUBBABEL’S RETURNCyrus had been ruler of Persia for some time before he conquered Babylon in 539 BC. His policy was, when he conquered a nation, to allow any people held captive by that nation to return to their homeland. Therefore, soon after he conquered Babylon (i.e. in his first year as the Jews’ new ruler) he gave permission for the Jews to return to Jerusalem (1:1-4). Jeremiah’s prophecy made seventy years earlier had come true: the Jews were released from Babylon’s power to... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Ezra 1:1

Cyrus. The son of Astyages and Esther. See App-57 , on the genealogy of the Persian kings. So named Neh 200 years before he was born (Isaiah 44:28 ). The book of Esther precedes the book of Ezra-Nehemiah, and Nehemiah 1:1 Nehemiah 7:4 precedes Ezr 1:1-14 . See note on Nehemiah 1:2 .Esther 3:8 ; Esther 10:3 , and App-57 . the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4 . mouth . Compare 2 Chronicles 36:21-23 .Jeremiah 29:10-14 . spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Ezra 1:1

THE LORD MOVED TO FULFIL HIS PROMISE OF ENDING THE EXILEThe seventy years of Israel's captivity had expired, exactly as Jeremiah had prophesied; and one of the most unbelievable events in human history promptly occurred, when, during the very first year of Cyrus' authority over the Chaldean kingdom (which at that time included Israel), the great ruler of Persia not only granted Israel permission to return to Palestine, but aided them very substantially in other ways also. There was no precedent... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Ezra 1:1

Ver. 1. Cyrus— Concerning Cyrus, see Isaiah 44:28. It is probable, that this decree of Cyrus in favour of the Jews was in a great measure owing to the good offices of Daniel. Cyrus, at his first coming to Babylon, found him there, an old minister of state, famed over all the east for his great wisdom; and accordingly we find, that he not only employed him as such; but, upon settling the government, made him first superintendant, or prime minister of state, over all the provinces of the empire.... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Ezra 1:1

1. in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—The Persian empire, including Persia, Media, Babylonia, and Chaldea, with many smaller dependencies, was founded by Cyrus, 536 B.C. [HALES]. that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled—(See Jeremiah 25:12; Jeremiah 29:10). This reference is a parenthetic statement of the historian, and did not form part of the proclamation. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ezra 1:1-4

Cyrus’ edict 1:1-4"It is not strange according to the Semitic style to start a book with a waw ["And" or "Now"], especially when the author intended to write a continuation of the history of his people. He connects the history which he wants to write with the already-written history of his people by using the conjunction ’and.’" [Note: Fensham, p. 42. Cf. Exodus 1:1; Joshua 1:1; Judges 1:1; et al.] One of Cyrus’ first official acts after capturing Babylon was to allow the Jews to return to... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Ezra 1:1-11

The Return of the Jews from CaptivityThe chapter narrates how Cyrus, king of Persia, permitted the Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple there, and restored the vessels taken from it.1. Now, etc.] The book of Ezra begins with the last words of 2 Ch; Ezra 1:1-2 and the first half of Ezra 1:3 occurring in 2 Chronicles 36:22, 2 Chronicles 36:23. The three books, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, were probably at first continuous, in this order; but subsequently the arrangement... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Ezra 1:1-4

I. THE FIRST RETURN UNDER ZERUBBABEL.(1-4) The decree of Cyrus: marking an epoch of very great importance, and therefore repeated almost word for word from the end of Chronicles.(1) The first year.—Cyrus became king of Persia in B.C. 559. Twenty years afterwards he took Babylon from Belshazzar; and this first year of his rule in Babylon was his beginning as an agent in Jewish affairs and for the Kingdom of God.Stirred up.—By a direct influence, probably through the instrumentality of Daniel.... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Ezra 1:1

CYRUSEzra 1:1THE remarkable words with which the Second Book of Chronicles closes, and which are repeated in the opening verses of the Book of Ezra, afford the most striking instance on record of that peculiar connection between the destinies of the little Hebrew nation and the movements of great World Empires which frequently emerges in history. We cannot altogether set it down to the vanity of their writers, or to the lack of perspective accompanying a contracted, provincial education, that... read more

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