Isaiah 44:28

44:28 who commissions ¹  Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd ² 

to carry out all my wishes ³ 

and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’

and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’” ⁴ 

Isaiah 59:19

59:19 In the west, people respect ⁵  the Lord’s reputation; ⁶ 

in the east they recognize his splendor. ⁷ 

For he comes like a rushing ⁸  stream

driven on by wind sent from the Lord. ⁹ 

Zechariah 1:18-21

Vision Two: The Four Horns

1:18 (2:1) ¹⁰  Once again I looked and this time I saw four horns. 1:19 So I asked the angelic messenger ¹¹  who spoke with me, “What are these?” He replied, “These are the horns ¹²  that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ¹³  1:20 Next the Lord showed me four blacksmiths. ¹⁴  1:21 I asked, “What are these going to do?” He answered, “These horns are the ones that have scattered Judah so that there is no one to be seen. ¹⁵  But the blacksmiths have come to terrify Judah’s enemies ¹⁶  and cut off the horns of the nations that have thrust themselves against the land of Judah in order to scatter its people.” ¹⁷ 

Zechariah 9:13

9:13 I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow! ¹⁸  I will stir up your sons, Zion, against yours, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, ¹⁹  like a warrior’s sword.

Zechariah 10:3

10:3 I am enraged at the shepherds and will punish the lead-goats.

For the Lord who rules over all has brought blessing to his flock, the house of Judah, and will transform them into his majestic warhorse.

Zechariah 12:6

12:6 On that day ²⁰  I will make the leaders of Judah like an igniter ²¹  among sticks and a burning torch among sheaves, and they will burn up all the surrounding nations right and left. Then the people of Jerusalem will settle once more in their place, the city of Jerusalem.

Revelation 17:14

17:14 They will make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those accompanying ²²  the Lamb are the called, chosen, and faithful.”

Revelation 19:14

19:14 The ²³  armies that are in heaven, dressed in white, clean, fine linen, ²⁴  were following him on white horses.

¹ tn Heb “says to.” It is possible that the sentence is not completed, as the description of Cyrus and his God-given role is developed in the rest of the verse. 45:1 picks up where 44:28a leaves off with the Lord’s actual words to Cyrus finally being quoted in 45:2.

² tn Heb “my shepherd.” The shepherd motif is sometimes applied, as here, to a royal figure who is responsible for the well-being of the people whom he rules.

³ tn Heb “that he might bring to completion all my desire.”

⁴ tn Heb “and [concerning the] temple, you will be founded.” The preposition -לְ (lÿ) is understood by ellipsis at the beginning of the second line. The verb תִּוָּסֵד (tivvased, “you will be founded”) is second masculine singular and is probably addressed to the personified temple (הֵיכָל [hekhal, “temple”] is masculine).

⁵ tc Heb “fear.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read “see.”

⁶ tn Heb “and they fear from the west the name of the Lord.”

⁷ tn Heb “and from the rising of the sun his splendor.”

⁸ tn Heb “narrow”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “pent-up.”

⁹ tn Heb “the wind of the Lord drives it on.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh) could be translated “breath” here (see 30:28).

¹⁰ sn This marks the beginning of ch. 2 in the Hebrew text. Beginning with 1:18, the verse numbers through 2:13 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 1:18 ET = 2:1 HT, 1:19 ET = 2:2 HT, 1:20 ET = 2:3 HT, 1:21 ET = 2:4 HT, 2:1 ET = 2:5 HT, etc., through 2:13 ET = 2:17 HT. From 3:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

¹¹ tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in v. 9.

¹² sn An animal’s horn is a common OT metaphor for military power (Pss 18:2; 75:10; Jer 48:25; Mic 4:13). The fact that there are four horns here (as well as four blacksmiths, v. 20) shows a correspondence to the four horses of v. 8 which go to four parts of the world, i.e., the whole world.

¹³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁴ tn Heb “craftsmen” (so NASB, NIV; KJV “carpenters”), a generic term which can mean “metalworker, smith, armorer” (HALOT 358 s.v. חָרָשׁ). “Blacksmiths” was chosen for the present translation because of its relative familiarity among contemporary English readers.

¹⁵ tn Heb “so that no man lifts up his head.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “terrify them”; the referent (Judah’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tn Heb “to scatter it.” The word “people” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸ tn The words “my arrow” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation to clarify the imagery for the modern reader (cf. NRSV, NLT).

¹⁹ tn The word “Zion” is not repeated here in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that the statement refers to Zion and not to Greece.

²⁰ sn On that day (referring to the day of the Lord) the Davidic monarchy will be restored and the Lord’s people will recognize once more the legitimacy and divine sanction of David’s dynasty. But there will also be a democratizing that will not give Jerusalem and its rulers undue priority over the people of the countryside (v. 7).

²¹ tn Heb “a firepot” (so NASB, NIV); NRSV “a blazing pot”; NLT “a brazier.”

²² tn See BDAG 636 s.v. μετά A.2.a.α.

²³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²⁴ tn On the term translated “fine linen,” BDAG 185 s.v. βύσσινος states, “made of fine linen, subst. τὸ β. fine linen, linen garment…Rv 18:12, 16; 19:8, 14.”