Isaiah 45:1

Isaiah 45:1 . Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, &c. — Cyrus is called the Lord’s anointed, a title usually given to the kings of the Jews, who were God’s immediate deputies, not because material oil had been poured upon him when he was made king, as was the case with most of them, but because he was raised up, and ordained by the divine counsel, to perform God’s good pleasure, and furnished for that purpose with the necessary endowments; among which must be reckoned “his singular justice, his reverence toward the divine nature, his prudence, fortitude, and distinguished clemency and humanity:” to all which, and many other of his excellent qualities, his historian, Xenophon, bears testimony. Whose right hand I have holden — Or strengthened as החזקתי may be properly rendered; whom I will powerfully assist, teaching his hands to war, as the phrase is Psalm 18:34 , supporting and directing his right hand, and enabling him to surmount all difficulties, and to overcome all opposition. To subdue nations before him — The nations conquered by him, according to Xenophon, were “the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phœnicians, Babylonians. He moreover reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacæ, Paphlagones, and Mariandyni.” All these kingdoms he acknowledges, in his decree for the restoration of the Jews, to have been given him by Jehovah, the God of heaven, Ezra 1:2 .

And I will loose the loins of kings — I will weaken them, and render them unprepared and unable to oppose Cyrus. “The eastern people, wearing long and loose garments, were unfit for action or business of any kind, without girding their clothes about them: when their business was finished, they took off their girdles. A girdle, therefore, denotes strength and activity; and to unloose the girdle is to deprive of strength, to render unfit for action.” To open before him the two-leaved gates — “The gates of Babylon, within the city, leading from the streets to the river, were providentially left open in the night when Cyrus’s forces entered the city through the channel of the river, in the general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was then celebrated: otherwise, says Herodotus, the Persians would have been shut up in the bed of the river, and taken as in a net, and all destroyed. And the gates of the palace were opened imprudently by the king’s orders, to inquire what was the cause of the tumult without, when two parties of Medes and Persians rushed in, got possession of the palace, and slew the king.” See Xenoph. Cyrop., 7. p. 528; and Bishop Lowth.

Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to {a} Cyrus, whose {b} right hand I have held, to {c} subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; (a) To assure the Jews of their deliverance against the great temptations that they would abide, he names the person and the means. (b) Because Cyrus would execute the office of a deliverer, God called him his anointed for a time, but after another sort than he called David. (c) To guide him in the deliverance of my people.

CHAPTER 45 Isa 45:1-25. The Subject of the Deliverance by Cyrus Is Followed Up. Isa 45:1-7. These seven verses should have been appended to previous chapter, and the new chapter should begin with Isa 45:8, "Drop down," &c. [Horsley]. Reference to the deliverance by Messiah often breaks out from amidst the local and temporary details of the deliverance from Babylon, as the great ultimate end of the prophecy. 1. his anointed—Cyrus is so called as being set apart as king, by God's providence, to fulfil His special purpose. Though kings were not anointed in Persia, the expression is applied to him in reference to the Jewish custom of setting apart kings to the regal office by anointing. right hand … holden—image from sustaining a feeble person by holding his right hand (Isa 42:6). subdue nations—namely, the Cilicians, Syrians, Babylonians, Lydians, Bactrians, &c.; his empire extended from Egypt and the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, and from Ethiopia to the Euxine Sea. loose … girdle loins—that is, the girdle off the loins; and so enfeeble them. The loose outer robe of the Orientals, when girt fast round the loins, was the emblem of strength and preparedness for action; ungirt, was indicative of feebleness (Job 38:3; 12:21); "weakeneth the strength of the mighty" (Margin), "looseth the girdle of the strong." The joints of (Belshazzar's) loins, we read in Da 5:6, were loosed during the siege by Cyrus, at the sight of the mysterious handwriting on the palace walls.

His being taken by surprise, unaccoutred, is here foretold. to open … gates—In the revelry in Babylon on the night of its capture, the inner gates, leading from the streets to the river, were left open; for there were walls along each side of the Euphrates with gates, which, had they been kept shut, would have hemmed the invading hosts in the bed of the river, where the Babylonians could have easily destroyed them. Also, the gates of the palace were left open, so that there was access to every part of the city; and such was its extent, that they who lived in the extremities were taken prisoners before the alarm reached the center of the palace. [Herodotus, 1.191].Cyrus’s work and strength foretold, Isaiah 45:1-4. God hath all power, Isaiah 45:5-12; will assist Cyrus, Isaiah 45:13,14. The mystery of Providence, Isaiah 45:15. Idols and their worshippers shall be destroyed, and God alone exalted, 16—21. The Gentiles come in to Christ, Isaiah 45:22-25. His anointed, i.e. his king, whom God hath designed, and separated, and fitted, in all respects, for his work and service; in which and such-like respects divers persons are said to be anointed, who never had any material oil poured upon them, as the king of Tyrus, Ezekiel 28:14, and Christ, Isaiah 61:1, and Zerubbabel, Zechariah 4:14, and Christians, 2 Cop. 1:21 1Jo 2:27. And they are thus called by way of allusion to the practice of the Jews, whose kings were frequently anointed, 1 Samuel 10:1 16:13, &c.

Isaiah 45:1-7 . The apostrophe to Cyrus expresses dramatically the purpose of Jehovah in raising up the Persian conqueror. The idea that the true God has made a personal revelation of Himself to the mind of Cyrus is not implied; Cyrus is to learn the religious significance of his mission from its results ( Isaiah 45:3 ), just as mankind at large comes to understand it ( Isaiah 45:6 ). The direct address to Cyrus ( Isaiah 45:2 ff.) is prefaced in Isaiah 45:1 by a series of clauses describing his invincible career, which has already attracted the attention of the world. There is a startling resemblance between some of the expressions here used of Jehovah’s choice of Cyrus, and some of those employed by the Babylonian writer of the “Annalistic Tablet” in describing him as the favourite of Merodach.

We read there that “Merodach … appointed a prince who should guide aright the wish of the heart which his hand upholds, even Cyrus …” that he “has proclaimed his title; for the sovereignty of all the world does he commemorate his name,” and that he “beheld with joy the deeds of his vicegerent, who was righteous in hand and heart,” and that “like a friend and comrade he went at his side.” (See Introduction, p. xviii.) to his anointed, to Cyrus ] The Hebr. word for “anointed” ( mâshîǎḥ ), when used as a substantive, is almost confined to the kings of Israel; although in later times there was a tendency to employ it in a wider sense (e.g. of the Patriarchs in Psalm 115:15 , of the people in Habakkuk 3:13 ). Unless Psalm 2:2 be an exception it is never used in the O.T. of the future ideal king (the Messiah); hence the idea that the rôle of the Messianic king is by the prophet transferred to Cyrus is not to be entertained. The title simply designates him as one consecrated by Jehovah to be His agent and representative. This, however, is the only passage where the title is bestowed upon a foreign ruler; Nebuchadnezzar is called the “servant” of Jehovah ( Jeremiah 25:9 ; Jeremiah 27:6 ; Jeremiah 43:10 ), but the more august designation of “His Anointed” is reserved for one who as the Deliverer of Israel and the instrument of the overthrow of polytheism, stands in a still closer relation to Jehovah’s purpose. Comp. “My Shepherd” in ch. Isaiah 44:28 ; also ch.

Verses 1-7. - GOD'S WILL CONCERNING HIM ANNOUNCED TO CYRUS. This direct address of God to a heathen king is without a parallel in Scripture. Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Abimelech, were warned through dreams. Nebuchadnezzar was even promised Divine aid ( Ezekiel 30:24, 25 ). But no heathen monarch had previously been personally addressed by God, much less called "his anointed," and spoken to by his name (ver. 4). Three motives are mentioned for this special favour to him: (1) that he might acknowledge Jehovah to be the true God; (2) that Israel might be benefited and advantaged by him; (3) that the attention of the whole world might be attracted, and the unity of God made manifest far and wide (vers. 3-6). Verse 1. - Thus saith the Lord to his anointed . The "anointed of Jehovah" is elsewhere always either an Israelite king, or the expected Deliverer of the nation, "Messiah the Prince" ( Daniel 9:25 ). This Deliverer, however, was to be of the line of David ( Isaiah 11:1 ), and of the city of Bethlehem ( Micah 5:2 ), so that we can scarcely suppose Isaiah to have seen him in Cyrus. But he may have seen in Cyrus a type of the great Deliverer, as he saw in the release of Israel from the power of Babylon a type of their deliverance from sin. Whose right hand I have holden ; rather, strengthened (comp. Ezekiel 30:24 ). To subdue nations before him (see above, Isaiah 41:2 , and the comment ad loc .).

Among the nations subdued by Cyrus may be mentioned the Medes, the Babylonians, the Lydians, the Caftans, the Caunians, the Lycians, the Bactrians, the Sacae, the Parthians, the Hyrcanians, the Chorasmians, the Sogdians, the Arians of Herat, the Zarangians, the Arachosians, the Satagydians, and the Gandarians. I will loose the loins of kings ; i.e . render them weak and incapable of resistance" (comp. Daniel 5:6 ), net "disarm them" (Cheyne); for the chief royal weapons were the spear and the bow, neither of which was carried at the girdle. To open before him the two-leaved gates. The cities and forts repro-sented on the Assyrian monuments have invariably their gateways closed by two large gates or doors which meet in the centre of the gateway. The bronze plating found at Ballarat gave the dimensions, and showed the strength of such gates ('Transactions of the Society of Bibl. Archseol.,' vol. 7. pp. 83-88). Isaiah 45:1

XLV. (1) To his anointed . . .—The name is none other than the Messiah, the Christ, with which we are familiar, here and here only applied to a heathen king. It has to be remembered that the words had not yet received the special application given to it in Daniel 9:26, and had been used of the theocratic kings, of Saul (1Samuel 26:9; 1Samuel 26:11; 1Samuel 26:16), of the house of David (2Samuel 22:51; 2Samuel 23:1), and of the patriarch Abraham (Psalm 105:15). What is meant, therefore, is that Cyrus, the future deliverer, would be as truly a king “by the grace of God” as David had been, not only, like Nebuchadnezzar, “a servant of Jehovah” (Jeremiah 27:6; Jeremiah 43:10), but “fulfilling all his pleasure,” whom He grasps by the right hand and guides. I will loose the loins.—Literally, I will ungird, either as a general symbol of weakening, or specifically for disarming, the sword being suspended from the girdle. The “two-leaved gates” are those of kingly palaces; the “gates,” those of cities, which will have to open to him. The words here, and in the next verse, may have been used with a special reference to the “hundred brazen gates” of Babylon (Herod. i. 179).