Daniel Meets Cyrus

Cyrus II

Jeremiah preached that Judah’s captivity would be 70 years, one year for every Sabbath year that they did not allow the land to rest over the past 490 years.  Now the 70 years are completed under Cyrus II or Cyrus the Great of Persia.

According to Josephus, when Cyrus made his grand entrance into Babylon after his general had conquered it, the elderly Daniel greets him with an old scroll  containing a letter from God, addressing him by name, written 150 years earlier (Isaiah 44:27-45:12).  It describes Cyrus, his tactics, and Babylon which was not a major power when Isaiah had written it.  Therefore, Cyrus became a believer, although loosely, as reflected in Ezra 1:2-4.

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