The Pulpit Commentary — Ezra — Section 4

the Great became King of Persia. by his final Ver. 2.-Thus saith Cyrus. Persian in• defeat and capture of Astyo.ges, m B.o. 559 scriptions do not ordinarily commence in probably. HIS conq.uest -of Babylon was, this way ; but the formula "sais Darius the compe.ni.tively spea.king, le.te in his reign king," " says Xerxes the king ' is frequent (Herod., Xenoph. ), and is fixed by the Ca.non in them. King of Persia, So the Beh1stun of Ptolemy to B.O. 538. He took the city inscription : " I am Darius, the great king, on the night of Belsha.zzar's feast (Dan. v. the king of kings, the king of Persia." 80), when Daniel he.d just been ap:eointed The Lord God of heaven, Y~hovah Elohey to the third pl&C0 in the kingdom (ibid. ver. hashshamayim. "God of heaven " seems 29), and was practically at the head of affairs. to have been a usual title of the Supreme Thus the great king and the great prophet of B_eing e.mon~. the Persie.ns (see below, ~h. the time were brought into cont.act, and natur- Vl, 9, 10 ; vu. 12, 23), e.nd perhaps desig- ally conferred together, as may be gathered nated Ormuzd in contradistinction to Ahri- from Josephus(' Ant. Jud.,' ri 1). That the man, who was lord of the infernal regions. word of the Lord by the mouth of J'eremiah The use of the term " Jehovah," instead of might be fulfilled. The reference is to J er. Ormuzd, is remarkable, and was probu.bly xxv. 11, 12, and xxix. 10. Jeremiah he.d limited to the Hebrew transcript of the prophesied not only the fact, but the date proclamation. Rath given me all the king- of the return, by assigning to the captivity a doms of the earth. An acknowledgment duration of "seventy years." There might that they have received and hold their royal be some doubt when exactly this term would power from Ormuzd is universal on the part run out, since the year of 360 was in pro- of all the Persian kings who have left in- phetic nse no less than the year of 365 days scriptions of any length ; but they do not (' Diet. of the Bible,' s. v. YEAR), e.nd, more- often indulge in such a hyperbole as this of over, the exact date of the commencement Cyrus. Artaxerxes Ochus, however, calls of the captivity admitted of question ; but himself " king of this world" (Rawlinson, Daniel appears to have calculated in B.C. 'Cuneiform Inscr.,' vol. i. p. 341). The 538 that the t.erm was approaching its term- mention of the "kingdoms of the earth" is ination (see Dan. ix. 2--19). If the captivity appropriate, since Cyrus had not inherited were regarded as commencing in the third his empire, but built it up by the conquest year of J ehoiakim (Dan. i 1, 2), which was of a vast number of independent states :e. c. 606-605, and if years of 360 days were (' Herod.' i passim). His own feeling that regarded as intended. this would clearly be God had in all cases given him the victory = so, since 360 x 70 25,200, and 365 x 68 24,820, so that in :e.o. 538 only another = harmonizes with the statement of Isaiah in eh. xlv. 1. Re hath charged me to build year was we.nting. For the prophecy to be him e. house e.t J'erusalem. The he is em- fulfilled, it was requisite that the first steps phatic, and is expressed by avroi; in the towards bringing about the return and the Septuagint and ipse in the Vulgate. He cessation of desolation should not be delayed himself, Jehovah-Elohim, has given it me in beyond the close of B. o. 538. The Lord, charge to build him a house. Most critics accordingly, in this year stirred up the spirit rightly explain by referring to Isa. :tliv. 28, of Cyrus, king of Persia.. As God in earlier and accepting the statement of Josephus times had worked on the minds of Abimelech (' Ant. Jud.,'xi 1) that the passagewasshown (Gen. xx. 3) and Bala.am (Num. xxiii. 5, 16), to Cyrus shortly after his capture of Babylon. and more recentlv of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. He understood the prophecy as a command, ii 28), so now, lt would seem, he directly and proceeded to obey it. Which is in 1udah, influenced the heart and will of Cyrus. This The addition of this clause marks strongly is the less surprising, e.s Cyrus was, in the the oblivion into which the ruined city he.d Divine counsels, fore-ordained to do this fallen. Apparently, it was necessary to recall work, and he.d been raised to his high station its situation to men's minds by an express for the purpose (Isa. :tliv. 28 ; xlv. 1-4). mention of the province whereof it had been Cyrus was thus induced to make a proclama- the capital Note the repetition of the clause tion (literally, "to make to pass a voice") in the next verse. throughout the whole kingdom, which reached Ver. 3.-Who (is ther~) among you of all from the .lEgean Sea to the borders of India, his people 1 Cyrus does not limit his address and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf, to the Jews, or even to Judah and Benjamin, and even to put it in writing, fl milctab, but extends it to the whole people of Jehovah, that so it might be sure to become generally i. e. to all the tribes equally. Gozan and known. Writing was probably of recent Media, to which the ten tribes had been introduction into Persia; but there is posi- transported by the Assyrian monarchB, were tiv-e evidence in the native remains of its use within his dominions no less than Baby- by Cyrus. His proclamation was probably lonia. The,t many non-Jewish Israelites did issued in at least two languages, Persian and return appee,rs from I Chron. ix. 3. Xia Chaldee. God be with him. A pious wish, almost a en. 1.I 1-4.]• THE BOOK OF EZRA.