Ezra 1:2

Thus saith Cyrus. An official formula for introducing a royal proclamation, similar to those used in other royal decrees. For example, the Behistun inscription (Aramaic version, col. iii, l. 37) reads, “Thus says king Darius.”

King of Persia. Compare the ordinary formula in Persian inscriptions, “I am ..., the great king, the king of kings, the king of Persia.”

The Lord God of heaven. Exactly the same title is found in an Aramaic petition made by Jews of the Nile island of Elephantine to a Persian governor, while in the reply of the Persian official to the petitioners, only the words “God of heaven” are used. Jewish monotheism may have appealed to Cyrus if he was a Zoroastrian; he may have equated Yahweh with his own god Ahura-Mazda.

Hath given me. Cyrus felt that he was an appointee of heaven, and that as such he had a divine commission to fulfill. In the famous inscription on the clay barrel of Cyrus, now in the British Museum, the king says, “He [the Babylonian god Marduk] scanned and looked [through] all the countries, searching for a righteous ruler willing to lead him [in the annual procession]. He pronounced the name of Cyrus, king of Anshan, declaring him to be the ruler of all the world.” These words, written for the Babylonians, are so similar to those used in the proclamation on behalf of the Jews that they, in combination with the other typical official terms used, constitute strong proof of the authenticity of the decree. The only difference consists in the names of the gods. In Babylonian proclamations the name of the Babylonian god Marduk was naturally used, while in one written for the Jews the name of their God was employed.

He hath charged me. The word “he” is emphatic. This emphasis is also found in the ancient Greek and Latin translations of the text. Obviously, Cyrus makes reference to Isa. 44:28. Josephus claims that this passage was shown to Cyrus soon after Babylon’s fall, and it is only natural to consider Daniel as the one who informed the king concerning the predictions of Cyrus’ conquest of Babylonia and his part in the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s Temple. In the aforementioned clay barrel inscription Cyrus claims to have repatriated many foreign gods the Babylonians had transported to their capital, and rebuilt many sanctuaries that had been in ruins. In view of the fact that the authorization for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem came in the first year of his reign, it is probable that the wisdom of such a policy led Cyrus to do the same for other subject peoples and their gods. Thus the king’s action with respect to the Jews and their Temple was completely in agreement with what eventually became a general policy of pleasing the nations that had suffered at the cruel hands of the Babylonians, in order to gain their good will and loyal support as citizens of the new Persian Empire.

House. Hebrew bayith, “house,” used of either a human dwelling or of one devoted to God. Bayith may therefore appropriately be translated “temple” here.

In Judah. That this phrase is added here, and again in the following verse, reflects the official character of the document, which would be expected to indicate the precise geographical location of the Temple to be rebuilt.