About this episode
Isaiah celebrates the Persian king as God's annointed. Indeed Cyrus was the ruler who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and even funded the rebuilding of the Temple. But, as we shall see, the prophet here is commenting on what is now known as the "Cyrus Cylinder", a text that attributes Cyrus's poer to the Persian God., Marduk. Isaiah uses identical language to affirm that God is the exclusive master of history, and it is God and God alone, who will return the Jewish people to their land.