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.'"¹⁹

One of Cyrus' first official acts after capturing Babylon was to allow the Jews to return to their land. This took place in his "first year"(v. 1) as king over all Medo-Persia including Babylonia (i.e., 538 B.C.). The writer of Ezra regarded 539 B.C. as the beginning of Cyrus' reign probably because when Cyrus defeated Babylonia he gained authority over Palestine that had until then been under Babylonian sovereignty.

Chronology of Ezra 1-6

539

Cyrus conquered Babylon and took over the Babylonian Empire.

538

Cyrus' first year. He issued his decree.

537

Sheshbazzar returned with almost 50,000 Jews.

The returnees rebuilt the altar in Jerusalem, offered sacrifices, and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles.

536

The returnees laid the temple foundation.

Reconstruction ceased due to opposition.

535

534

533

532

531

530

Cyrus died and Cambyses II began reigning.

529

528

527

526

525

Cambyses conquered Egypt.

524

523

522

Cambyses died and Darius I (Hystaspes) began reigning.

521

520

Haggai urged the people to resume temple construction, and they did so.

Darius confirmed Cyrus' decree.

Zechariah began ministering.

519

518

517

516

515

The people completed temple construction and celebrated the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread.

About 150 years earlier Jeremiah had prophesied that the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years (Jer. 25:12; 29:10).

Cyrus proclaimed his edict 67 years after the first Babylonian deportation from Judah (605 B.C.). Important matters were put in writing in the ancient Near East.²⁰

Verse 2 reads as though Cyrus was a believer in Yahweh. However, Isaiah predicted that he would not be (Isa. 45:4-5). Evidently he was a polytheist and worshipped several gods.²¹On the "Cyrus Cylinder,"the clay cylinder on which Cyrus recorded his capture of Babylon, the king gave credit to Marduk for his success. He said he hoped the people under his authority would pray for him to Bel and Nebo.²²Probably Cyrus gave lip-service to all the gods his people worshipped, but the evidence suggests that he did not believe Yahweh was the only true God.

Apparently Cyrus knew about Isaiah's prophecies concerning himself (v. 2; cf. Isa. 41:2; 44:28; 45:1, 4-5, 12, 13).

He ". . . read this, and . . . an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfill what was so written."²³

The "house in Jerusalem"(v. 2) was, of course, a house of worship, the temple. Cyrus not only gave permission for the Jews to return to Jerusalem (v. 3), but he encouraged them to rebuild the temple (v. 3). He also urged their neighbors to support this project financially (v. 4).

"The Holy City and the house of God are both prominent subjects in Ezra-Nehemiah. Jerusalem occurs eighty-six times, and the phrases temple,' house of the Lord,' and house of God' appear fifty-three times."²⁴

"Although they are neither great literature nor important historical sources, the Murashu documents do provide a significant glimpse into the social and commercial life of a Babylonian city [i.e., Nippur] under Persian rule, and thus help to augment our knowledge of the onomastic practices, occupations and circumstances of the Diaspora. Like their contemporaries at Elepantine [in Egypt], by the fifth century B.C. the exiles at Nippur had become fully integrated into the economic life of their society, fulfilling the injunctions of Jeremiah 19:5ff. Perhaps even more thoroughly than the prophet had intended!"²⁵