They are expressed in a series of poetic images, in which, with the exception of the name of Cyrus, all is general; images, moreover, drawn for the most part, not from the great events connected with the conquests of Cyrus, but from the earlier history of Israel.  Let any one read, for example, the forty-sixth and forty-seventh chapters of Isaiah, and ask himself whether a writer who lived in Cyrus’ day could have described the fall of Babylon without specific allusions to the agencies by which it was brought to pass.  As to the historic references which some find to the march of the Jewish caravans of returning captives through the desert that lay between Babylon and Palestine, whoever reads the passages in question without a previously formed conclusion, must be satisfied that they are poetic descriptions of the redemption and restoration of God’s people borrowed mainly from the primitive journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan through the wilderness of Arabia.  God, as then, goes before his people, opening for them in their extremity “rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys;” making “the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”  Even Cyrus is mentioned not as the king of Persia, but as a man raised up from the east to execute God’s vengeance on the oppressors of his people.

According to Ctesias and Plutarch, the name Cyrus signifies sun.  Strabo says that his name, before ascending the throne of Persia, was Agradales.  Some are of opinion that the word Cyrus (Heb. Koresh) was an appellation common to the kings of Persia.  We do not need, however, the help of this hypothesis.  God himself explains the ground on which he is mentioned by name:  “For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, have I even called thee by thy name:  I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me” (45:4).  According to Josephus (Antiq. 11. 1, 2), Cyrus was moved to issue his decree for the liberation of the Jews by a knowledge of the prophecies of Isaiah in which he is mentioned by name.  With this agree the terms of the edict:  “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”  Ezra 1:2, compared with Isa. 44:28.  If this view be correct, the mention of Cyrus by name was a part of God’s plan for the restoration of the covenant people.

It is not true, as has been asserted, that the prophet follows Cyrus in the details of his conquests.  On the contrary, his notices of him are few and general.  As to the sins of the people which he rebukes, they may be all naturally referred to the times of Isaiah, while some of them, as the neglect of the established sacrifices and oblations (43:23, 24), and the offering of sacrifices in connection with an impure heart and life (66:3), presuppose the existence of the temple and altar at Jerusalem, where alone sacrifices