Ezra 1:1 - Exposition

In the first year of Cyrus. The context shows that it is the first year of Cyrus at Babylon which is intended. Cyrus the Great became King of Persia by his final defeat and capture of Astyages, in b.c. 559 probably. His conquest of Babylon was, comparatively speaking, late in his reign (Herod; Xenoph.), and is fixed by the Canon of Ptolemy to b.c. 538. He took the city on the night of Belshazzar's feast ( Daniel 5:30 ), when Daniel had just been appointed to the third place in the kingdom ( ibid. verse 29), and was practically at the head of affairs. Thus the great king and the great prophet of the time were brought into contact, and naturally conferred together, as may be gathered from Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 11.1). That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled . The reference is to Jeremiah 25:11 , Jeremiah 25:12 , and Jeremiah 29:10 . Jeremiah had prophesied not only the fact, but the date of the return, by assigning to the captivity a duration of "seventy years." There might be some doubt when exactly this term would run out, since the year of 360 was in prophetic use no less than the year of 365 days ('Dict. of the Bible,' s.v. YEAR ), and, moreover, the exact date of the commencement of the captivity admitted of question; but Daniel appears to have calculated in b.c. 538 that the term was approaching its termination (see Daniel 9:2-19 ). If the captivity were regarded as commencing in the third year of Jehoiakim ( Daniel 1:1 , Daniel 1:2 ), which was b.c. 606-605, and if years of 360 days were regarded as intended, this would clearly be so, since 360 x 70 = 25,200, and 365 × 68 = 24,820, so that in b.c. 538 only another year was wanting. For the prophecy to be fulfilled, it was requisite that the first steps towards bringing about the return and the cessation of desolation should not be delayed beyond the close of b.c. 538. The Lord , accordingly, in this year stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia . As God in earlier times had worked on the minds of Abimelech ( Genesis 20:3 ) and Balaam ( Numbers 23:5 , Numbers 23:16 ), and more recently of Nebuchadnezzar ( Daniel 2:28 ), so now, it would seem, he directly influenced the heart and will of Cyrus. This is the less surprising, as Cyrus was, in the Divine counsels, fore-ordained to do this work, and had been raised to his high station for the purpose ( Isaiah 44:28 ; Isaiah 45:1-4 ). Cyrus was thus induced to make a proclamation (literally, "to make to pass a voice") throughout the whole kingdom, which reached from the AE gean Sea to the borders of India, and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf, and even to put it in writing , b' miktab , that so it might be sure to become generally known. Writing was probably of recent introduction into Persia; but there is positive evidence in the native remains of its use by Cyrus. His proclamation was probably issued in at least two languages, Persian and Chaldee.