26who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’
27who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’
28Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’ ”
26 who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’
27 who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’
28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’ ”
KJVKing James Version
26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:
27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
26 That confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers; that saith of Jerusalem: 'She shall be inhabited'; and of the cities of Judah: 'They shall be built, and I will raise up the waste places thereof';
27 That saith to the deep: 'Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers';
28 That saith of Cyrus: 'He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure'; even saying of Jerusalem: 'She shall be built'; and to the temple: 'My foundation shall be laid.'
2 Chronicles 36:22(v28)Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that Yahweh’s word by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the…
1 Kings 18:36-38(v26)At the time of the evening offering, Elijah the prophet came near, and said, “Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it…
Isaiah 42:9(v26)Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”
Isaiah 45:1(v28)Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor; to open…
Ezra 6:3-18(v28)In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place…
Show all 55 cross-references
Isaiah 45:13(v28)I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free,…
Daniel 10:1(v28)In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, even…
Acts 2:25-28(v26)For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my…
2 Peter 1:19-21(v26)We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and…
Nehemiah 1:3(v26)They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of…
Isaiah 46:11(v28)I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have…
Isaiah 60:10(v26)“Foreigners will build up your walls, and their kings will serve you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
Isaiah 63:11(v28)Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his…
Jeremiah 30:18(v26)Yahweh says: “Behold, I will reverse the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places. The city will be built on…
Jeremiah 33:7(v26)I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
Daniel 9:25(v26)“Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince,…
Ezra 2:70(v26)So the priests and the Levites, with some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants, lived in their cities, and…
Psalms 78:71-72(v28)from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance. So he…
Isaiah 54:11-12(v26)“You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with…
Ezekiel 38:17(v26)“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for…
Amos 9:14(v26)I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant…
Zechariah 1:6(v26)But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said,…
Isaiah 42:15(vv27–28)I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.
Exodus 11:4-6(v26)Moses said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘About midnight I will go out into the middle of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt…
Exodus 12:29-30(v26)At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of…
1 Kings 13:3-5(v26)He gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which Yahweh has spoken: Behold, the altar will be split apart, and the ashes that…
Nehemiah 2:3(v26)I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste,…
Psalms 102:13-16(v26)You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come. For your servants take pleasure in…
Psalms 147:2(v26)Yahweh builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
Isaiah 45:3(v28)I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your…
Isaiah 48:14-15(v28)“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to…
Isaiah 54:3(v26)For you will spread out on the right hand and on the left; and your offspring will possess the nations and settle in desolate cities.
Isaiah 58:12(v26)Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called…
Jeremiah 31:4(v26)I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the…
Jeremiah 31:38-40(v26)“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the city will be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. The…
Jeremiah 32:15(v26)For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Houses and fields and vineyards will yet again be bought in this land.’
Jeremiah 32:44(v26)Men will buy fields for money, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem,…
Jeremiah 50:38(v27)A drought is on her waters, and they will be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.
Jeremiah 51:36(v27)Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.
Ezekiel 36:10(v26)I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even all of it. The cities will be inhabited, and the waste places will be built.
Ezekiel 36:33-36(v26)“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited and the waste…
Zechariah 2:4(v26)and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of…
Zechariah 12:6(v26)In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour…
Zechariah 14:10-11(v26)All the land will be made like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up, and will dwell in her place,…
Matthew 5:18(v26)For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass…
Matthew 26:56(v26)But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Luke 24:44(v26)He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets,…
Nehemiah 3:1-32(v26)Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They sanctified it, and set up its…
Psalms 74:15(v27)You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
Isaiah 11:15-16(v27)Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will…
Isaiah 43:16(v27)Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters,
Isaiah 51:15(v27)For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Yahweh of Armies is his name.
Isaiah 61:4(v26)They will rebuild the old ruins. They will raise up the former devastated places. They will repair the ruined cities that have been…
Jeremiah 51:32(v27)So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.”
Revelation 16:12(v27)The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings that…
55 distinct cross-references across this passage (56 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv26–28Of Isaiah and the rest of his Prophets, which…
Of Isaiah and the rest of his Prophets, which did assure the Church of God’s favor and deliverance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv26–28Isa 44:26 That confirmeth the word of his servant,…
Isa 44:26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:
Ver. 26. That confirmeth the word of his servant,] i.e., Of myself and other prophets, saying the same with me.
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That saith to Jerusalem.] Who then shall gainsay it? Is not God’s word his will, and his will his work?
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv26–28Of his servant; of his servants, the prophets, as…
Of his servant; of his servants, the prophets, as appears from the next clause, which answers to this, where he useth the plural number,
his messengers; Isaiah and other prophets, whom God sent upon this errand, to foretell the destruction of Babylon, and the redemption of his people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv26–28That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth…
That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers,.... Who, as he confirmed the word of Isaiah and other prophets, and fulfilled their predictions concerning the captivity of the Jews, and their deliverance from it; so he has confirmed and established the word preached by his servants, the Gospel, which is the counsel of God, delivered out by his messengers, the apostles, and first preachers of it; it being attended with the demonstration of the spirit, and of power, to the conversion of sinners, and to the destruction of idolatry and Pagan worship. By the Lord's "servant" some understand Moses, as Jarchi; others Isaiah, as Kimchi and most interpreters; and why not Paul, as Cocceius? though the singular seems rather to be put for the plural, as the next clause explains it; and so the Arabic version renders it, "his servants"; to which the Targum agrees, paraphrasing it,
"confirming the words of his servants the righteous:''
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that saith to Jerusalem, thou shalt be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah, ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof; all which suppose that Jerusalem, which, in the prophet's time, was full of inhabitants, should be emptied of them, by the sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity; yet, nevertheless, there should be a return of the Jews from captivity, and this city should be peopled and inhabited again; and also, that the cities of Judah, which were now in good circumstances, should be laid waste, and all the adjacent country be in a ruinous condition, all which should be rebuilt and restored to a flourishing state again. The Lord had said it, and it should be done; as accordingly it was. This may be understood, in a spiritual sense, of the building up of the church of God, and the setting up and establishing the interest of Christ, by the preaching of the Gospel.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv27–28That saith - That with a word can dry…
That saith - That with a word can dry up the sea and rivers, and remove all impediments.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv27–28Verse 27. That saith to the deep, Be dry…
Verse 27. That saith to the deep, Be dry - "Who saith to the deep, Be thou wasted"] Cyrus took Babylon by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event so exactly corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by Jeremiah, Jer 50:38; Jer 51:36.
"A drought shall be upon her waters, and they shall
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be dried up: -
I will lay her sea dry
And I will scorch up her springs."
It is proper here to give some account of the means and method lay which the stratagem of Cyrus was effected.
The Euphrates in the middle of the summer, from the melting of the snows on the mountains of Armenia, like the Nile, overflows the country. In order to diminish the inundation, and to carry off the waters, two canals were made by Nebuchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city; the first on the eastern side called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, by which the Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other on the western side, called Pallacopas, or Naharaga, (נהר אגם nahar agam, The river of the pool,) by which the redundant waters were carried into a vast lake, forty miles square, contrived, not only to lessen the inundation, but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the barren country on the Arabian side. Cyrus, by turning the whole river into the lake by the Pallacopas, laid the channel, where it ran through the city, almost dry; so that his army entered it, both above and below, by the bed of the river, the water not reaching above the middle of the thigh. By the great quantity - of water let into the lake, the sluices and dams were destroyed; and being never repaired afterwards, the waters spread over the whole country below, and reduced it to a morass, in which the river is lost. Ingens modo et navigabilis, inde tenuis rivus, despectus emoritur; et nusquam manifesto exitit effluit, ut alii omnes, sed deficit. "And thus a navigable river has been totally lost, it having no exit from this morass. No wonder then that the geographical face of this country is completely changed;" MELA iii. 8; HEROD. i. 186, 190; XENOPHON, Cyrop. vii.; ARRIAN vii.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v28Isa 44:28. That saith of Cyrus — Whom God…
Isa 44:28. That saith of Cyrus — Whom God here mentions by his proper name, two hundred years before he was born, that this might be an undeniable evidence of the exactness of God’s foreknowledge, and a convincing argument to conclude this dispute between God and idols. He is my shepherd — Him will I set up to be the shepherd of my people, to rescue them from wolves or tyrants, to gather them together, to rule them gently, and to provide comfortably for them. Xenophon tells us, that Cyrus used to compare kings in general, and himself in particular, to a shepherd. — Cyropæd., lib. 8. And shall perform all my pleasure — All that I command him to do, especially to give leave and order for the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem, as it here follows. This prophecy, which thus speaks of Cyrus by name, as foreknown and appointed by the divine counsel for the performance of the great work designed by providence, is one of the most remarkable contained in Scripture, of the same kind with that 1Ki 13:1-2.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv26–28That confirmeth the word of his servant - Probably…
That confirmeth the word of his servant - Probably the word ‘servant’ here is to be taken in a collective sense, as referring to the prophets in general who had foretold the return of the Jews to their own land, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Or it may be, that the prophet refers more particularly to himself as having made a full prediction of this event. The parallel expression, ‘his messengers,’ however, is in the plural number, and thus it is rendered probable that the word here refers to the prophets collectively. The idea is, that it was a characteristic of God to establish the words of his servants the prophets, and that their predictions in regard to the return from the captivity in a special manner would be fulfilled.
The counsel of his messengers - The prophets whom he had sent to announce future events, and to give counsel and consolation to the nation.
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That saith to Jerusalem - Jerusalem is here supposed to be lying in ruins, and the people to be in captivity in Babylon. In this situation, God is represented as addressing desolate Jerusalem, and saying, that it should be again inhabited, and that the cities of Judah should be rebuilt.
The decayed places - Margin, ‘Wastes.’ No land, probably, was ever more completely desolated than the land of Judea when its inhabitants were carried to Babylon.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv26–28Servant. The prophets and Jesus Christ, whose works never…
Servant. The prophets and Jesus Christ, whose works never fail, Matthew xxiv. 35. (Calmet) --- In all this prediction of the Church, Isaias alludes to Jerusalem destroyed, and afterwards rebuilt. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv26–28servant--in a collective sense, for the prophets in general,…
servant--in a collective sense, for the prophets in general, who foretold the return from Babylon; answering to "His messengers" (plural, in the parallel clause) [MAURER]. Antitypically, and ultimately, Messiah, who is the consummating embodiment of all the prophets and messengers of God (Mal 3:1; Mat 21:34, Mat 21:36-37; Joh 10:36); hence the singular, "His servant."
counsel--predictions; prophets' counsels concern the future (compare "counsellor," Isa 41:28).
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Jerusalem--regarded prophetically, as lying in ruins.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv26–2826. That confirmeth] is the antithesis to “that frustrateth”…
26. That confirmeth] is the antithesis to “that frustrateth” in Isa_44:25. (Cf. Jer_29:10; Jer_33:14).
the word of his servant … the counsel of his messengers] are parallel expressions for the word of prophecy. The sing. “servant” presents some difficulty. That it is equivalent to “prophet” is clear from the context; but that a particular prophet, such as Jeremiah or the writer himself, is meant is extremely improbable. It might conceivably be used of the prophets collectively, or of Israel as the bearer of the prophetic word, but the parallelism with “messengers” in the next clause is opposed to both these interpretations. The word should probably be pointed as a plural,—his servants; which is the reading of the Codex Alexandrinus of the LXX.
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performeth] Lit. completeth.
that saith &c.] that saith of Jerusalem, Let her be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, Let them be built. At this point, as Delitzsch observes, the transition is made to special predictions bearing on the restoration of Israel.
decayed places] R.V. waste places, or ruins.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv26–28(26) That confirmeth the word of his servant.—The parallelism…
(26) That confirmeth the word of his servant.—The parallelism of “servant” in the singular with “messengers” in the plural suggests the thought that the prophet is not speaking of himself, but of Israel, as the ideal “servant of the Lord,” the prophetic nation represented by the individual “messengers” or prophets. Comp. as to the word Isa_42:19; Mal_3:1, and that prophet’s own name (“my messenger”).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv26–28That confirmeth the word of his servant; that is,…
That confirmeth the word of his servant; that is, of Isaiah himself, whom God calls "my Servant" in Isa_20:3. Thev"messengers" are the prophets generally. Before the return from the Captivity took place, it had been prophesied, not only by Isaiah, but by Jeremiah, (Jer_29:10-14) by Ezekiel, (Eze_39:25-28) by, (Joe_3:1) by Amos, (Amo_9:11-15) by Obadiah, (Oba_1:20) by, (Mic_4:10) and by Zephaniah. (Zep_3:14-20)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v28That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd
Isa_44:28
That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd
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Cyrus, the Lords shepherd
Cyrus was the ideal king of the Persians and Greeks.
His is the only name that is mentioned with any detail, I believe, both in the Persian and in the Greek, and also in the Hebrew literature. We speak of the great heroes of the world as Alexander and Caesar and Napoleon. That list begins too late. We ought to begin instead with Cyrus, who was at first a prince of a small principality at the head of the Gulf of Oman. Later he conquered the Medes and Persians. Later Asia Minor, including Lydia, and at last he captured Babylon. In capturing Babylon he released from captivity the chosen people, and it is because of that fact that he is called in the Scriptures, and that he is known in history by the very unique title of the Lords shepherd. There is only one other person to whom that phrase has ever been applied, and it is a very singular fact that a heathen king, one entirely out of all line with the chosen people, one so far away from traditions, which we have been in the habit of calling sacred, holy, as if his name had been Confucius or Buddha, in the Scriptures should have been given exactly the same title that was given to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. (A. H. Bradforad, D. D.)
The unity of history:
We will observe a few facts in support of my contention that history is the record of a beneficent development.
1. The governments of the world. In the early time government was simply for a few; there was no monarchy but force; there was no place for love. In the present time, in the immortal words of our President,. Government is of the people, by the people, for the people. The word which I best remember of any which I heard spoken in London was by Dr. Bevan, Of old, government was for the few; to-day, government is for the many. And that is what things have been moving towards as the years have been passing.
2. Take another illustration, and that from the realm of religion. We think of one God; but to those early Hebrews there were many gods. They were not those who believed simply in one God for all the world. They believed in Jehovah as the God able to subdue all the gods of the heathen. They had not reached, except in the person of a few of their leaders, the sublime altitude of modern times of one pervading and all-enduring Unity, one holy, spiritual, true, and loving God. What was their worship?
3. We come to another illustration quite as familiar. We hear very much in our time concerning the social condition of the labouring people. The great dumb multitudes have found a voice; and every now and then, some man, ignorant of history, writes to say the rich were never so rich, and the poor never so poor; the condition of one class was never so luxurious, the condition of the other class was never so mean. He does not know what the condition of the masses was in the time when the pyramids were built, in the time when the Caesars ruled in Rome and doled out corn to the multitude. He has not read the history of Great Britain, or of France, or of any other nation of Europe, or on the face of the earth. The condition of the world is improving. In the old time the condition of the woman was that of a thing or an animal; she belonged to her husband. She is a woman now, the equal of her husband. In the old time the child was absolutely under the power of the father. If the child was an orphan he was put on the street. Now, to use the phrase of a contemporary writer, If he hath no father and if he hath no mother, he becomes the child of the public. What mean our charities? Conclusion--
(1) Providence is compelling progress and no individual can possibly prevent it.
(2) Not all are equally worthy of blessing, of commendation; although all may bear their part in bringing about the glorious consummation.
(3) Cyrus shows to us the sweep of the Divine purpose. Gods plan includes the nations and the ages. There is a place for Greece, for India, for China, for Rome, for Great Britain, there is a place for every nation as well as for Judah. There is a place for Napoleon, and Confucius, and Buddha, because there was a place for Cyrus.
(4) But the other One to whom that glorious name was applied, the Lords Shepherd, shows us what Cyrus does not show us, namely, the nature of that plan, revealing to us the nature of the One who made the plan. I look upon the face of Jesus Christ, and I see there is a person, and a sacrificial purpose, and a sacrifice which reaches even to the uttermost. (A. H. Bradford, D. D.)
Notables fulfilling Gods purpose
Rich princes shall do what poor prophets have foretold. (M. Henry.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v28Isa_44:28. Cyrus, my shepherd, shall perform all my pleasure.
THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY IN THE CAREER OF CYRUS
Isa_44:28. Cyrus, my shepherd, shall perform all my pleasure.
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The fulfilment of prophecy is one of the two supernatural arguments for the truth of the Scriptures. I now present in some detail the fulfilment of prophecy in the career and conquests of Cyrus.
Isaiah wrote not less than a hundred and thirty years before Cyrus was born; and not less than a hundred and fifty years before his conquest of Babylon. It was long before the Median kingdom existed. The captivity of Judah had not begun. Three or four generations lived and died between the prophet and the Persian prince. The prophet could not possibly have other means of knowing who Cyrus was to be, or what he was to do in the world, than the simple revelation of the facts by the Spirit of God. Yet that he foretold the conqueror’s career, down to minutest details, is established by precisely the same kind and amount of evidence which proves that either Cyrus or Isaiah existed at all.
1. The name of Cyrus, the point of the compass indicative of his birthplace, and the direction of his march upon Babylon, are distinctly foretold. “Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus, I have raised up one from the North. From the rising of the sun—that is, from the East—shall he call upon my name.” The two points of the compass named in this language of Isaiah are singularly true. Cyrus was born in Persia, which was east of Babylon. It was commonly called “the East.” One historian speaks of it as the “land of the sunrising.” But at a very early age Cyrus was removed to Media, lying on the north of Babylon; and it was from Media that he came down, at the head of victorious hosts, upon the doomed capital. The prophet thus sees in a vision a prince of eastern birth marching upon the city from the north, and that his name is Cyrus.
Small matters these, but all the more significant for that. The question is: Who told Isaiah such minute details about a man he never saw or heard of; coming from a kingdom which at that time had no existence; achieving a conquest which then had not been dreamed of? How did he know what name the future conqueror would bear, a hundred and thirty years before he had a name?
Did anybody ever predict Bonaparte’s conquest of Italy a century before his birth? Did ever statesman or magician, as far back as A.D. 1650, declare that, a century and a half later, a conqueror born in the west of Italy would come down from the north and take possession of Rome, and that his name would be Napoleon? Yet this is in kind what the Hebrew prophet did. The question is, Who told him all that? How did he alone, of all the inhabitants of the world, find out the facts so exactly and so minutely?
2. Isaiah furthermore describes with remarkable accuracy the personal character of Cyrus. His warlike spirit, his towering ambition, the rapidity of his conquests, the equity of his administration, and his heathen religion, are all declared after the manner of prophecy. “Calling a ravenous bird from the East,” is the prophet’s language. Prophetic vision deals largely in symbols. The eagle is its favourite symbol of an aspiring, warlike, swift conqueror. “Who raised up the righteous man from the East” is the prophetic description of Cyrus. It is almost the exact language in which historians describe the government of the Persian king. “The just one” he is often called. “Take example from the Persian,” the tutors of Oriental princes used to say to their royal pupils. “I have girded thee, though thou hast not known Me,” are the words which prophecy puts into the mouth of God concerning him. This is a distinct prediction of his ignorance of the true God.
These are but a few specimens of the prophetic touches of which there are many more, portraying with an artist’s skill the character of this monarch. Imagine now that, in addition to announcing the name and the birthplace of Napoleon a hundred and thirty years before he was born, the magician had described him as an eagle in his conquests; had said that he would originate a superior code of jurisprudence,—the “Code Napoleon;” and that in his religion he would be a Romanist. Would not such hints, added to the items before named, redouble the surprise at the magician’s power? Would not men ask with astonishment who he was, where he came from, by whose authority he spoke, and where he got his information? Yet this is just what Isaiah declares of the great conqueror of the East.
3. The significance of the prophecy deepens, when it comes to describe the conquests achieved by Cyrus. Passages abound of which these are specimens: “He gave the nations before him. He made him ruler over kings. He made them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. The isles saw it and feared, they helped every one his neighbour. Every one said to his neighbour, ‘Be of good courage.’ I will subdue nations under him. I will loose the loins of kings.”
By such rapid glances, the half of which I do not quote, the prophet foretells the victories of Cyrus over the great nations of the East; the consternation of their kings; their alliances for mutual defence; and the velocity with which the Persian legions marched from victory to victory.
Turn we now to history: what has that to say? It does but repeat the prophecy in describing the facts as they occurred. Says one: “He had scarcely gained one victory, before his tumultuous forces poured down on other battle-grounds. Scarcely had one city fallen, before he stood thundering at the gates of another. Empires were like dust before him, and cities like chaff.” That prophecy, “I will loose the loins of kings,” had its exact fulfilment in the consternation of Belshazzar at the handwriting on the wall, when the Persian armies were on the march, and within twenty-four hours would be heard tramping the streets of the doomed capital.
4. The prophecy of the downfall of Babylon deserves distinct review. The prophetic story runs in this style: “Evil shall come upon thee. Thou shalt not know from whence it ariseth. Thou shalt not be able to put it off. Desolation shall come suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” Thus is expressed the sudden, the unexpected, the irresistible, and the improbable calamity which was coming upon that haughty city.
Just such, in fact, was its conquest by Cyrus. That event, to begin with, was in itself, and in any form, improbable. The military science of the age pronounced Babylon impregnable by any methods of assault or siege then known. So secure did king and people feel that it could not be taken by human force or strategy, that on the very night of its capture by Cyrus, they were given up to feasting and carousal behind their insurmountable walls. The king would not believe the rumour of the enemy’s entrance, even when the blood of his people was flowing in the streets.
Here, again, little incidents are detailed which no soothsayer would have thought of, or would have dared to predict, if he had thought of them. “I will say to the deep, ‘Be dry.’ I will dry up thy rivers. I will open before him the two-leaved gates. The gates shall not be shut.” The significance of this language will appear from arraying it side by side with the historic facts. Babylon was a city fifteen miles square. It was intersected by the river Euphrates, as London is by the Thames, and Paris by the Seine. Solid walls surrounded it three hundred and fifty feet high, and broad enough on the top for four chariots to be driven abreast. The two sections again were separated by walls running along both banks of the river. Fronting the streets on either side were folding gates for convenience of access to the stream by day, which the police were instructed to close at the setting of the sun.
Cyrus took the city by a remarkable stratagem. He invented a novel way of marching his army into impregnable Babylon. If he could not march over the walls, he would contrive to march under. He did it by a very simple expedient, when once thought of, but only he had the genius to think of it. He dug an immense canal around the walls, and turned the river Euphrates into it. Then he marched his army at dead of night, and in dead silence, under the walls, in the vacant bed of the river. But this brought him only between the two other immense river-walls inside. How to surmount these was the question. The indomitable general had provided scaling-ladders for the purpose. But the God of Isaiah had done better for him than that. He found those gates which let the citizens down to the river in the day-time—“two-leaved,” that is, folding-gates—wide open. Like other drunken policemen, the custodians of Babylon had neglected to close those gates. Even the palace gates were not closed. The invader got near enough to hear the drunken carousals of the king and his courtiers inside, before they were convinced of his approach. Do you not now see a new meaning in the words, “I will dry up thy rivers; I will open the two-leaved gates; the gates shall not be shut; I will loose the loins of kings”?
Herodotus, writing seventy years afterwards, says, “If the besieged had been aware of the designs of Cyrus, they might have destroyed his troops. They had only to secure the folding gates leading to the river, and to have manned the embankments on either side, and they would have enclosed the Persians in a trap from which they could never have escaped. As it happened, they were taken by surprise; and such is the extent of the city that they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before the alarm reached the palace.” “As it happened.” Yes, it happened; but a hundred and more years before God had said by His prophet how it should happen. He had said, “I will open the two-leaved gates.” So Cyrus found them wide open, and the way clear to the very banquet-hall of the palace, just as Isaiah had said, before Cyrus was born, that they should be.
The question therefore returns, laden with redoubled significance, Where did Isaiah get his information? Who told him that Babylon, a hundred and fifty years afterwards, would be shut off from the Euphrates by gates? Who told him that they would be folding-gates? How did he know that a man named Cyrus would enter the capital in the bed of the river, and on that particular night, contrary to usage and to law, would find that the police had left those gates open, as if on purpose to let the invader in? In short, how came he to write history a hundred and fifty years beforehand? Did any other historian ever write his history a century and a half before it happened, instead of a century and a half later, and be lucky enough to have it all happen to be true, even down to the structure and the opening of gates?
5. One other feature of the prophecy and the history in parallels remains to be noticed. Isaiah explicitly foretells the restoration of Judah from captivity, and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, through the agency of Cyrus, God declares by the mouth of the prophet: “I will direct all his ways. He shall let go my captives;” even saying to Jerusalem, “Be built,” and to the temple, “Thy foundations shall be laid. He shall let go my captives, not for price or reward. Ye shall be redeemed without money. Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight.”
Here we find another group of details which no uninspired mind could have guessed at, and no soothsayer would have dared to predict. Every one of them was to the last degree improbable. No statesman of the age did conjecture them. In the prophet’s time there were no captives at all in Babylon from Judah. When they became captives, long after, it was improbable that they would be released in any way by an Oriental despot, flushed with victory. They were very valuable captives. They were of an intelligent race. Good servants, able-bodied men and women for household use, skilful artisans, honest labourers, were abundant among them. Men of learning and genius, like Daniel, some of whom were deservedly advanced to high places in the realm, were Hebrews. Never was a more valuable class of slaves of equal number held by the rights of war than those held under command of Cyrus from Judea. It was the last thing to be expected from an Eastern despot, that he should let such a people go free; that he should charge no ransom for them; that they should not be compelled to take their freedom by force or stratagem; that their master himself should restore to them their plundered treasures, and direct the rebuilding of their desolated temple. Never was a prediction more improbable on the face of it.
Yet all these things happened, just as Isaiah said they would. The truth of the history no infidel presumes to question, whatever he may think of the prophecy. The question therefore returns again, How did Isaiah get his knowledge of coming events? Who told him facts a hundred and more years before the wisest statesman of the age had once thought of them as conjectures? Did any other man, not inspired of God, ever coin history thus out of guess-work? Did ever romance fall true like this? Sir Walter Scott wrote historical romances. Has “Ivanhoe” or “Quentin Durward” ever come true? Toss up a font of alphabetic type at random in the air, and will they come down all set and ready for the press in the form of the “Arabian Nights?” Yet this is, in substance, what infidelity asks us to believe, when it denies the gift of Divine inspiration to the Hebrew prophets.
Such, then, is the argument from fulfilled prophecy for the Divine origin of the Scriptures. The career of Cyrus is but a single sample. Other cases of the same kind swell the proof to volumes. The present condition of Babylon, the destruction of Moab, the fall of Tyre, the conquest of Egypt, the doom of Damascus, the desolation of Idumea, the sack of Jerusalem, the life, death, and burial of Christ, are events which belong to the same class. They all abound with the same sort of coincidence between the prophecy and the history. The coincidence extends to minute details. It is sustained without a break through long-continued narrative, covering years—yes, centuries, and involving the destiny of individuals with the fate of nations and of empires.
Such intricate and involved prevision no human mind could have painted without a break in the truthfulness of the story, unless inspired by an omniscient God. Any other solution of the mystery throws upon us a weight of credulity a hundredfold greater than that of faith in the “Arabian Nights” as authentic history. For the most part infidelity feels this, and very shrewdly decides to let the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible alone. There is no other argument for the truth of the Christian Scriptures, which infidels so generally agree to ignore as this.—Austin Phelps, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v28Cf. 1Ki 13:2 where Josiah was mentioned by name…
Cyrus
Cf. 1Ki 13:2 where Josiah was mentioned by name three hundred years before his birth.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv26, 28who confirmed the words of his servant and brings…
who confirmed the words of his servant and brings to pass the predictions of his messengers
Yahweh is saying the same thing twice to emphasize that it is only he, Yahweh, who causes the prophesies to be fulfilled. (See: Parallelism)
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the words of his servant ... the predictions of his messengers
The abstract nouns "words" and "predictions" can be translated as verbs. AT: "what his servant declares ... what his messengers announce" (See: Abstract Nouns)
She will be inhabited
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People will live there again" (See: Active or Passive)
They will be built again
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People will rebuild them" (See: Active or Passive)
I will raise up their ruins
The phrase "ruins" refers to places that have been destroyed. Yahweh speaks of rebuilding them as if he were raising them up. AT: "I will rebuild what others have destroyed" (See: Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv27–2844:27 The sudden depletion of natural resources at times…
44:27 The sudden depletion of natural resources at times indicates a divine judgment (see 42:15; cp. 43:20). Here, however, God’s ability to dry up streams with just a word illustrates his power to do what he said he would do through Cyrus of Persia.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv26–28 Of Isaiah and the rest of his Prophets, which…
Of Isaiah and the rest of his Prophets, which did assure the Church of God’s favor and deliverance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv26–28 Isa 44:26 That confirmeth the word of his servant,…
Isa 44:26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:
Ver. 26. That confirmeth the word of his servant,] i.e., Of myself and other prophets, saying the same with me.
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That saith to Jerusalem.] Who then shall gainsay it? Is not God’s word his will, and his will his work?
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv26–28 Of his servant; of his servants, the prophets, as…
Of his servant; of his servants, the prophets, as appears from the next clause, which answers to this, where he useth the plural number,
his messengers; Isaiah and other prophets, whom God sent upon this errand, to foretell the destruction of Babylon, and the redemption of his people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv26–28 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth…
That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers,.... Who, as he confirmed the word of Isaiah and other prophets, and fulfilled their predictions concerning the captivity of the Jews, and their deliverance from it; so he has confirmed and established the word preached by his servants, the Gospel, which is the counsel of God, delivered out by his messengers, the apostles, and first preachers of it; it being attended with the demonstration of the spirit, and of power, to the conversion of sinners, and to the destruction of idolatry and Pagan worship. By the Lord's "servant" some understand Moses, as Jarchi; others Isaiah, as Kimchi and most interpreters; and why not Paul, as Cocceius? though the singular seems rather to be put for the plural, as the next clause explains it; and so the Arabic version renders it, "his servants"; to which the Targum agrees, paraphrasing it,
"confirming the words of his servants the righteous:''
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that saith to Jerusalem, thou shalt be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah, ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof; all which suppose that Jerusalem, which, in the prophet's time, was full of inhabitants, should be emptied of them, by the sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity; yet, nevertheless, there should be a return of the Jews from captivity, and this city should be peopled and inhabited again; and also, that the cities of Judah, which were now in good circumstances, should be laid waste, and all the adjacent country be in a ruinous condition, all which should be rebuilt and restored to a flourishing state again. The Lord had said it, and it should be done; as accordingly it was. This may be understood, in a spiritual sense, of the building up of the church of God, and the setting up and establishing the interest of Christ, by the preaching of the Gospel.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv27–28 That saith - That with a word can dry…
That saith - That with a word can dry up the sea and rivers, and remove all impediments.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv27–28 Verse 27. That saith to the deep, Be dry…
Verse 27. That saith to the deep, Be dry - "Who saith to the deep, Be thou wasted"] Cyrus took Babylon by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event so exactly corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by Jeremiah, Jer 50:38; Jer 51:36.
"A drought shall be upon her waters, and they shall
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be dried up: -
I will lay her sea dry
And I will scorch up her springs."
It is proper here to give some account of the means and method lay which the stratagem of Cyrus was effected.
The Euphrates in the middle of the summer, from the melting of the snows on the mountains of Armenia, like the Nile, overflows the country. In order to diminish the inundation, and to carry off the waters, two canals were made by Nebuchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city; the first on the eastern side called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, by which the Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other on the western side, called Pallacopas, or Naharaga, (נהר אגם nahar agam, The river of the pool,) by which the redundant waters were carried into a vast lake, forty miles square, contrived, not only to lessen the inundation, but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the barren country on the Arabian side. Cyrus, by turning the whole river into the lake by the Pallacopas, laid the channel, where it ran through the city, almost dry; so that his army entered it, both above and below, by the bed of the river, the water not reaching above the middle of the thigh. By the great quantity - of water let into the lake, the sluices and dams were destroyed; and being never repaired afterwards, the waters spread over the whole country below, and reduced it to a morass, in which the river is lost. Ingens modo et navigabilis, inde tenuis rivus, despectus emoritur; et nusquam manifesto exitit effluit, ut alii omnes, sed deficit. "And thus a navigable river has been totally lost, it having no exit from this morass. No wonder then that the geographical face of this country is completely changed;" MELA iii. 8; HEROD. i. 186, 190; XENOPHON, Cyrop. vii.; ARRIAN vii.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v28 Isa 44:28. That saith of Cyrus — Whom God…
Isa 44:28. That saith of Cyrus — Whom God here mentions by his proper name, two hundred years before he was born, that this might be an undeniable evidence of the exactness of God’s foreknowledge, and a convincing argument to conclude this dispute between God and idols. He is my shepherd — Him will I set up to be the shepherd of my people, to rescue them from wolves or tyrants, to gather them together, to rule them gently, and to provide comfortably for them. Xenophon tells us, that Cyrus used to compare kings in general, and himself in particular, to a shepherd. — Cyropæd., lib. 8. And shall perform all my pleasure — All that I command him to do, especially to give leave and order for the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem, as it here follows. This prophecy, which thus speaks of Cyrus by name, as foreknown and appointed by the divine counsel for the performance of the great work designed by providence, is one of the most remarkable contained in Scripture, of the same kind with that 1Ki 13:1-2.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv26–28 That confirmeth the word of his servant - Probably…
That confirmeth the word of his servant - Probably the word ‘servant’ here is to be taken in a collective sense, as referring to the prophets in general who had foretold the return of the Jews to their own land, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Or it may be, that the prophet refers more particularly to himself as having made a full prediction of this event. The parallel expression, ‘his messengers,’ however, is in the plural number, and thus it is rendered probable that the word here refers to the prophets collectively. The idea is, that it was a characteristic of God to establish the words of his servants the prophets, and that their predictions in regard to the return from the captivity in a special manner would be fulfilled.
The counsel of his messengers - The prophets whom he had sent to announce future events, and to give counsel and consolation to the nation.
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That saith to Jerusalem - Jerusalem is here supposed to be lying in ruins, and the people to be in captivity in Babylon. In this situation, God is represented as addressing desolate Jerusalem, and saying, that it should be again inhabited, and that the cities of Judah should be rebuilt.
The decayed places - Margin, ‘Wastes.’ No land, probably, was ever more completely desolated than the land of Judea when its inhabitants were carried to Babylon.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv26–28 Servant. The prophets and Jesus Christ, whose works never…
Servant. The prophets and Jesus Christ, whose works never fail, Matthew xxiv. 35. (Calmet) --- In all this prediction of the Church, Isaias alludes to Jerusalem destroyed, and afterwards rebuilt. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv26–28 servant--in a collective sense, for the prophets in general,…
servant--in a collective sense, for the prophets in general, who foretold the return from Babylon; answering to "His messengers" (plural, in the parallel clause) [MAURER]. Antitypically, and ultimately, Messiah, who is the consummating embodiment of all the prophets and messengers of God (Mal 3:1; Mat 21:34, Mat 21:36-37; Joh 10:36); hence the singular, "His servant."
counsel--predictions; prophets' counsels concern the future (compare "counsellor," Isa 41:28).
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Jerusalem--regarded prophetically, as lying in ruins.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv26–28 26. That confirmeth] is the antithesis to “that frustrateth”…
26. That confirmeth] is the antithesis to “that frustrateth” in Isa_44:25. (Cf. Jer_29:10; Jer_33:14).
the word of his servant … the counsel of his messengers] are parallel expressions for the word of prophecy. The sing. “servant” presents some difficulty. That it is equivalent to “prophet” is clear from the context; but that a particular prophet, such as Jeremiah or the writer himself, is meant is extremely improbable. It might conceivably be used of the prophets collectively, or of Israel as the bearer of the prophetic word, but the parallelism with “messengers” in the next clause is opposed to both these interpretations. The word should probably be pointed as a plural,—his servants; which is the reading of the Codex Alexandrinus of the LXX.
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performeth] Lit. completeth.
that saith &c.] that saith of Jerusalem, Let her be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, Let them be built. At this point, as Delitzsch observes, the transition is made to special predictions bearing on the restoration of Israel.
decayed places] R.V. waste places, or ruins.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv26–28 (26) That confirmeth the word of his servant.—The parallelism…
(26) That confirmeth the word of his servant.—The parallelism of “servant” in the singular with “messengers” in the plural suggests the thought that the prophet is not speaking of himself, but of Israel, as the ideal “servant of the Lord,” the prophetic nation represented by the individual “messengers” or prophets. Comp. as to the word Isa_42:19; Mal_3:1, and that prophet’s own name (“my messenger”).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv26–28 That confirmeth the word of his servant; that is,…
That confirmeth the word of his servant; that is, of Isaiah himself, whom God calls "my Servant" in Isa_20:3. Thev"messengers" are the prophets generally. Before the return from the Captivity took place, it had been prophesied, not only by Isaiah, but by Jeremiah, (Jer_29:10-14) by Ezekiel, (Eze_39:25-28) by, (Joe_3:1) by Amos, (Amo_9:11-15) by Obadiah, (Oba_1:20) by, (Mic_4:10) and by Zephaniah. (Zep_3:14-20)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd
Isa_44:28
That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd
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Cyrus, the Lords shepherd
Cyrus was the ideal king of the Persians and Greeks.
His is the only name that is mentioned with any detail, I believe, both in the Persian and in the Greek, and also in the Hebrew literature. We speak of the great heroes of the world as Alexander and Caesar and Napoleon. That list begins too late. We ought to begin instead with Cyrus, who was at first a prince of a small principality at the head of the Gulf of Oman. Later he conquered the Medes and Persians. Later Asia Minor, including Lydia, and at last he captured Babylon. In capturing Babylon he released from captivity the chosen people, and it is because of that fact that he is called in the Scriptures, and that he is known in history by the very unique title of the Lords shepherd. There is only one other person to whom that phrase has ever been applied, and it is a very singular fact that a heathen king, one entirely out of all line with the chosen people, one so far away from traditions, which we have been in the habit of calling sacred, holy, as if his name had been Confucius or Buddha, in the Scriptures should have been given exactly the same title that was given to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. (A. H. Bradforad, D. D.)
The unity of history:
We will observe a few facts in support of my contention that history is the record of a beneficent development.
1. The governments of the world. In the early time government was simply for a few; there was no monarchy but force; there was no place for love. In the present time, in the immortal words of our President,. Government is of the people, by the people, for the people. The word which I best remember of any which I heard spoken in London was by Dr. Bevan, Of old, government was for the few; to-day, government is for the many. And that is what things have been moving towards as the years have been passing.
2. Take another illustration, and that from the realm of religion. We think of one God; but to those early Hebrews there were many gods. They were not those who believed simply in one God for all the world. They believed in Jehovah as the God able to subdue all the gods of the heathen. They had not reached, except in the person of a few of their leaders, the sublime altitude of modern times of one pervading and all-enduring Unity, one holy, spiritual, true, and loving God. What was their worship?
3. We come to another illustration quite as familiar. We hear very much in our time concerning the social condition of the labouring people. The great dumb multitudes have found a voice; and every now and then, some man, ignorant of history, writes to say the rich were never so rich, and the poor never so poor; the condition of one class was never so luxurious, the condition of the other class was never so mean. He does not know what the condition of the masses was in the time when the pyramids were built, in the time when the Caesars ruled in Rome and doled out corn to the multitude. He has not read the history of Great Britain, or of France, or of any other nation of Europe, or on the face of the earth. The condition of the world is improving. In the old time the condition of the woman was that of a thing or an animal; she belonged to her husband. She is a woman now, the equal of her husband. In the old time the child was absolutely under the power of the father. If the child was an orphan he was put on the street. Now, to use the phrase of a contemporary writer, If he hath no father and if he hath no mother, he becomes the child of the public. What mean our charities? Conclusion--
(1) Providence is compelling progress and no individual can possibly prevent it.
(2) Not all are equally worthy of blessing, of commendation; although all may bear their part in bringing about the glorious consummation.
(3) Cyrus shows to us the sweep of the Divine purpose. Gods plan includes the nations and the ages. There is a place for Greece, for India, for China, for Rome, for Great Britain, there is a place for every nation as well as for Judah. There is a place for Napoleon, and Confucius, and Buddha, because there was a place for Cyrus.
(4) But the other One to whom that glorious name was applied, the Lords Shepherd, shows us what Cyrus does not show us, namely, the nature of that plan, revealing to us the nature of the One who made the plan. I look upon the face of Jesus Christ, and I see there is a person, and a sacrificial purpose, and a sacrifice which reaches even to the uttermost. (A. H. Bradford, D. D.)
Notables fulfilling Gods purpose
Rich princes shall do what poor prophets have foretold. (M. Henry.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v28 Isa_44:28. Cyrus, my shepherd, shall perform all my pleasure.
THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY IN THE CAREER OF CYRUS
Isa_44:28. Cyrus, my shepherd, shall perform all my pleasure.
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The fulfilment of prophecy is one of the two supernatural arguments for the truth of the Scriptures. I now present in some detail the fulfilment of prophecy in the career and conquests of Cyrus.
Isaiah wrote not less than a hundred and thirty years before Cyrus was born; and not less than a hundred and fifty years before his conquest of Babylon. It was long before the Median kingdom existed. The captivity of Judah had not begun. Three or four generations lived and died between the prophet and the Persian prince. The prophet could not possibly have other means of knowing who Cyrus was to be, or what he was to do in the world, than the simple revelation of the facts by the Spirit of God. Yet that he foretold the conqueror’s career, down to minutest details, is established by precisely the same kind and amount of evidence which proves that either Cyrus or Isaiah existed at all.
1. The name of Cyrus, the point of the compass indicative of his birthplace, and the direction of his march upon Babylon, are distinctly foretold. “Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus, I have raised up one from the North. From the rising of the sun—that is, from the East—shall he call upon my name.” The two points of the compass named in this language of Isaiah are singularly true. Cyrus was born in Persia, which was east of Babylon. It was commonly called “the East.” One historian speaks of it as the “land of the sunrising.” But at a very early age Cyrus was removed to Media, lying on the north of Babylon; and it was from Media that he came down, at the head of victorious hosts, upon the doomed capital. The prophet thus sees in a vision a prince of eastern birth marching upon the city from the north, and that his name is Cyrus.
Small matters these, but all the more significant for that. The question is: Who told Isaiah such minute details about a man he never saw or heard of; coming from a kingdom which at that time had no existence; achieving a conquest which then had not been dreamed of? How did he know what name the future conqueror would bear, a hundred and thirty years before he had a name?
Did anybody ever predict Bonaparte’s conquest of Italy a century before his birth? Did ever statesman or magician, as far back as A.D. 1650, declare that, a century and a half later, a conqueror born in the west of Italy would come down from the north and take possession of Rome, and that his name would be Napoleon? Yet this is in kind what the Hebrew prophet did. The question is, Who told him all that? How did he alone, of all the inhabitants of the world, find out the facts so exactly and so minutely?
2. Isaiah furthermore describes with remarkable accuracy the personal character of Cyrus. His warlike spirit, his towering ambition, the rapidity of his conquests, the equity of his administration, and his heathen religion, are all declared after the manner of prophecy. “Calling a ravenous bird from the East,” is the prophet’s language. Prophetic vision deals largely in symbols. The eagle is its favourite symbol of an aspiring, warlike, swift conqueror. “Who raised up the righteous man from the East” is the prophetic description of Cyrus. It is almost the exact language in which historians describe the government of the Persian king. “The just one” he is often called. “Take example from the Persian,” the tutors of Oriental princes used to say to their royal pupils. “I have girded thee, though thou hast not known Me,” are the words which prophecy puts into the mouth of God concerning him. This is a distinct prediction of his ignorance of the true God.
These are but a few specimens of the prophetic touches of which there are many more, portraying with an artist’s skill the character of this monarch. Imagine now that, in addition to announcing the name and the birthplace of Napoleon a hundred and thirty years before he was born, the magician had described him as an eagle in his conquests; had said that he would originate a superior code of jurisprudence,—the “Code Napoleon;” and that in his religion he would be a Romanist. Would not such hints, added to the items before named, redouble the surprise at the magician’s power? Would not men ask with astonishment who he was, where he came from, by whose authority he spoke, and where he got his information? Yet this is just what Isaiah declares of the great conqueror of the East.
3. The significance of the prophecy deepens, when it comes to describe the conquests achieved by Cyrus. Passages abound of which these are specimens: “He gave the nations before him. He made him ruler over kings. He made them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. The isles saw it and feared, they helped every one his neighbour. Every one said to his neighbour, ‘Be of good courage.’ I will subdue nations under him. I will loose the loins of kings.”
By such rapid glances, the half of which I do not quote, the prophet foretells the victories of Cyrus over the great nations of the East; the consternation of their kings; their alliances for mutual defence; and the velocity with which the Persian legions marched from victory to victory.
Turn we now to history: what has that to say? It does but repeat the prophecy in describing the facts as they occurred. Says one: “He had scarcely gained one victory, before his tumultuous forces poured down on other battle-grounds. Scarcely had one city fallen, before he stood thundering at the gates of another. Empires were like dust before him, and cities like chaff.” That prophecy, “I will loose the loins of kings,” had its exact fulfilment in the consternation of Belshazzar at the handwriting on the wall, when the Persian armies were on the march, and within twenty-four hours would be heard tramping the streets of the doomed capital.
4. The prophecy of the downfall of Babylon deserves distinct review. The prophetic story runs in this style: “Evil shall come upon thee. Thou shalt not know from whence it ariseth. Thou shalt not be able to put it off. Desolation shall come suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” Thus is expressed the sudden, the unexpected, the irresistible, and the improbable calamity which was coming upon that haughty city.
Just such, in fact, was its conquest by Cyrus. That event, to begin with, was in itself, and in any form, improbable. The military science of the age pronounced Babylon impregnable by any methods of assault or siege then known. So secure did king and people feel that it could not be taken by human force or strategy, that on the very night of its capture by Cyrus, they were given up to feasting and carousal behind their insurmountable walls. The king would not believe the rumour of the enemy’s entrance, even when the blood of his people was flowing in the streets.
Here, again, little incidents are detailed which no soothsayer would have thought of, or would have dared to predict, if he had thought of them. “I will say to the deep, ‘Be dry.’ I will dry up thy rivers. I will open before him the two-leaved gates. The gates shall not be shut.” The significance of this language will appear from arraying it side by side with the historic facts. Babylon was a city fifteen miles square. It was intersected by the river Euphrates, as London is by the Thames, and Paris by the Seine. Solid walls surrounded it three hundred and fifty feet high, and broad enough on the top for four chariots to be driven abreast. The two sections again were separated by walls running along both banks of the river. Fronting the streets on either side were folding gates for convenience of access to the stream by day, which the police were instructed to close at the setting of the sun.
Cyrus took the city by a remarkable stratagem. He invented a novel way of marching his army into impregnable Babylon. If he could not march over the walls, he would contrive to march under. He did it by a very simple expedient, when once thought of, but only he had the genius to think of it. He dug an immense canal around the walls, and turned the river Euphrates into it. Then he marched his army at dead of night, and in dead silence, under the walls, in the vacant bed of the river. But this brought him only between the two other immense river-walls inside. How to surmount these was the question. The indomitable general had provided scaling-ladders for the purpose. But the God of Isaiah had done better for him than that. He found those gates which let the citizens down to the river in the day-time—“two-leaved,” that is, folding-gates—wide open. Like other drunken policemen, the custodians of Babylon had neglected to close those gates. Even the palace gates were not closed. The invader got near enough to hear the drunken carousals of the king and his courtiers inside, before they were convinced of his approach. Do you not now see a new meaning in the words, “I will dry up thy rivers; I will open the two-leaved gates; the gates shall not be shut; I will loose the loins of kings”?
Herodotus, writing seventy years afterwards, says, “If the besieged had been aware of the designs of Cyrus, they might have destroyed his troops. They had only to secure the folding gates leading to the river, and to have manned the embankments on either side, and they would have enclosed the Persians in a trap from which they could never have escaped. As it happened, they were taken by surprise; and such is the extent of the city that they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before the alarm reached the palace.” “As it happened.” Yes, it happened; but a hundred and more years before God had said by His prophet how it should happen. He had said, “I will open the two-leaved gates.” So Cyrus found them wide open, and the way clear to the very banquet-hall of the palace, just as Isaiah had said, before Cyrus was born, that they should be.
The question therefore returns, laden with redoubled significance, Where did Isaiah get his information? Who told him that Babylon, a hundred and fifty years afterwards, would be shut off from the Euphrates by gates? Who told him that they would be folding-gates? How did he know that a man named Cyrus would enter the capital in the bed of the river, and on that particular night, contrary to usage and to law, would find that the police had left those gates open, as if on purpose to let the invader in? In short, how came he to write history a hundred and fifty years beforehand? Did any other historian ever write his history a century and a half before it happened, instead of a century and a half later, and be lucky enough to have it all happen to be true, even down to the structure and the opening of gates?
5. One other feature of the prophecy and the history in parallels remains to be noticed. Isaiah explicitly foretells the restoration of Judah from captivity, and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, through the agency of Cyrus, God declares by the mouth of the prophet: “I will direct all his ways. He shall let go my captives;” even saying to Jerusalem, “Be built,” and to the temple, “Thy foundations shall be laid. He shall let go my captives, not for price or reward. Ye shall be redeemed without money. Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight.”
Here we find another group of details which no uninspired mind could have guessed at, and no soothsayer would have dared to predict. Every one of them was to the last degree improbable. No statesman of the age did conjecture them. In the prophet’s time there were no captives at all in Babylon from Judah. When they became captives, long after, it was improbable that they would be released in any way by an Oriental despot, flushed with victory. They were very valuable captives. They were of an intelligent race. Good servants, able-bodied men and women for household use, skilful artisans, honest labourers, were abundant among them. Men of learning and genius, like Daniel, some of whom were deservedly advanced to high places in the realm, were Hebrews. Never was a more valuable class of slaves of equal number held by the rights of war than those held under command of Cyrus from Judea. It was the last thing to be expected from an Eastern despot, that he should let such a people go free; that he should charge no ransom for them; that they should not be compelled to take their freedom by force or stratagem; that their master himself should restore to them their plundered treasures, and direct the rebuilding of their desolated temple. Never was a prediction more improbable on the face of it.
Yet all these things happened, just as Isaiah said they would. The truth of the history no infidel presumes to question, whatever he may think of the prophecy. The question therefore returns again, How did Isaiah get his knowledge of coming events? Who told him facts a hundred and more years before the wisest statesman of the age had once thought of them as conjectures? Did any other man, not inspired of God, ever coin history thus out of guess-work? Did ever romance fall true like this? Sir Walter Scott wrote historical romances. Has “Ivanhoe” or “Quentin Durward” ever come true? Toss up a font of alphabetic type at random in the air, and will they come down all set and ready for the press in the form of the “Arabian Nights?” Yet this is, in substance, what infidelity asks us to believe, when it denies the gift of Divine inspiration to the Hebrew prophets.
Such, then, is the argument from fulfilled prophecy for the Divine origin of the Scriptures. The career of Cyrus is but a single sample. Other cases of the same kind swell the proof to volumes. The present condition of Babylon, the destruction of Moab, the fall of Tyre, the conquest of Egypt, the doom of Damascus, the desolation of Idumea, the sack of Jerusalem, the life, death, and burial of Christ, are events which belong to the same class. They all abound with the same sort of coincidence between the prophecy and the history. The coincidence extends to minute details. It is sustained without a break through long-continued narrative, covering years—yes, centuries, and involving the destiny of individuals with the fate of nations and of empires.
Such intricate and involved prevision no human mind could have painted without a break in the truthfulness of the story, unless inspired by an omniscient God. Any other solution of the mystery throws upon us a weight of credulity a hundredfold greater than that of faith in the “Arabian Nights” as authentic history. For the most part infidelity feels this, and very shrewdly decides to let the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible alone. There is no other argument for the truth of the Christian Scriptures, which infidels so generally agree to ignore as this.—Austin Phelps, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v28 Cf. 1Ki 13:2 where Josiah was mentioned by name…
Cyrus
Cf. 1Ki 13:2 where Josiah was mentioned by name three hundred years before his birth.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv26, 28 who confirmed the words of his servant and brings…
who confirmed the words of his servant and brings to pass the predictions of his messengers
Yahweh is saying the same thing twice to emphasize that it is only he, Yahweh, who causes the prophesies to be fulfilled. (See: Parallelism)
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the words of his servant ... the predictions of his messengers
The abstract nouns "words" and "predictions" can be translated as verbs. AT: "what his servant declares ... what his messengers announce" (See: Abstract Nouns)
She will be inhabited
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People will live there again" (See: Active or Passive)
They will be built again
This can be stated in active form. AT: "People will rebuild them" (See: Active or Passive)
I will raise up their ruins
The phrase "ruins" refers to places that have been destroyed. Yahweh speaks of rebuilding them as if he were raising them up. AT: "I will rebuild what others have destroyed" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Yahweh
servant
Jerusalem
Judah
ruin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27–28 44:27 The sudden depletion of natural resources at times…
44:27 The sudden depletion of natural resources at times indicates a divine judgment (see 42:15; cp. 43:20). Here, however, God’s ability to dry up streams with just a word illustrates his power to do what he said he would do through Cyrus of Persia.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.