The historical debate as to who The Second Isaiah may have been and what time period he belongs to often refers to today’s chapter in which a very specific time stamp is alluded to. There’s no mention of the prophet ever meeting the great monarch but the mere explicit mention of his name is an important clue as to where we find ourselves in history - somewhere around 540 BCE.
Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who would become ruler of Babylon and the founder of the Achaemenid Empire- the largest empire the world had yet seen - started off as a nightmare.
According to legend, his grandfather Astyages, the last king of the the Medians, had two prophetic dreams in which a flood, and then a series of fruit-bearing vines, emerged from his daughter Mandane's pelvis, and covered the entire kingdom. The dreams were interpreted as a potential threat and the old king banished manande, marrying her off to Cambyses I, King of Anshan - a minor and unimportant province. Cyrus, born of this union around 600 BCE would eventually replace his grandfather, and then move to to take over the entire region, and much more. By 539 BCE he’ll conquer Babylon, dethrone its last king Nabonidus and proclaim himself "king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world" in the famous Cyrus Cylinder, an inscription deposited in the foundations of the Esagila temple dedicated to the chief Babylonian god, Marduk.
Whoever Isaiah II was, living in Babylon, he rejoices with the shift in leadership. There are important religious factors that come with the new regime, and there will be huge political implications to the ideology that Cyrus will promote - supporting local rights of minorities and proposing their return to worship of their deities in their original homelands.
Isaiah will officially confer ‘messianic’ status upon Cyrus in the next chapter but in today’s chapter he will first name him as a ruler favored by YHWH and following the Creator’s commands and good will:
כֹּֽה־אָמַ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ גֹּאֲלֶ֔ךָ וְיֹצֶרְךָ֖ מִבָּ֑טֶן אָנֹכִ֤י יְהֹוָה֙ עֹ֣שֶׂה כֹּ֔ל נֹטֶ֤ה שָׁמַ֙יִם֙ לְבַדִּ֔י רֹקַ֥ע הָאָ֖רֶץ מֵאִתִּֽי..
הָאֹמֵ֤ר לְכ֙וֹרֶשׁ֙ רֹעִ֔י וְכׇל־חֶפְצִ֖י יַשְׁלִ֑ם וְלֵאמֹ֤ר לִירוּשָׁלַ֙͏ִם֙ תִּבָּנֶ֔ה וְהֵיכָ֖ל תִּוָּסֵֽד
“So said YHWH, your Redeemer,
Who formed you in the womb:
It is I, YHWH, who made everything,
Who alone stretched out the heavens
And unaided spread out the earth;
I am the same who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd;
He shall fulfill all My purposes!
He shall say of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be rebuilt,’
And to the temple: ‘You shall be founded again.’”
Isaiah 44:28
Scholars claim that what is interesting is that while Cyrus is already recognized here as YHWH’s favored choice for local ruler, soon to be the only gentile to be named as the anointed one of messianic proportions -- Isaiah is doing so even before the famous proclamation of Cyrus was announced - ending in effect the Babylonian captivity. What Isaiah is excited about is not the political turn of events that Cyrus will herald but also the religious shift that this new reign brings. Cyrus will introduce the Zoroastrian religion, replacing some of the older pagan paths in favor of a complex dualistic deity model that has at its core a monotheistic model not that different than the Judean tradition that Isaiah is struggling to keep alive.
Theology will play a big part in what’s coming next, as Cyrus enters the world’ stage, just as predicated in his grandfather’s nightmares. He will become a key player in world history and in the Jewish dream of redemption - and how the Jewish religion will radically evolve.
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