Isa 44:28-45:1 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 28. That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd -"Who saith to Cyrus, Thou art my shepherd"] Pastor meus es; Vulg . The true reading seems to be roi attah ; the word attah , has probably been dropped out of the text. The same word is lost out of the text, . It is supplied in the Septuagint by the word ει, thou art . Saying to Jerusalem ] For velemor , the Septuagint and Vulgate read haomer . And to the temple ] uleheychal , as lirushalayim , before; the preposition is necessary, and the Vulgate seems to read so.- Houbigant . That saith of CYRUS, He is , or thou art, my shepherd-Saving to JERUSALEM , "Thou shalt be built;" and to the TEMPLE , "Thy foundation shall be laid."-There is a remarkable beauty and propriety in this verse. 1. Cyrus is called God's shepherd. Shepherd was an epithet which Cyrus took to himself; and what he gave to all good kings. 2. This Cyrus should say to the temple: "Thy foundation shall be laid." Not-thou shalt be built . The fact is, only the foundation was laid in the days of Cyrus, the Ammonites having prevented the building; nor was it resumed till the second year of Darius, one of his successors. There is often a precision in the expressions of the prophets which is as honourable to truth, as it is unnoticed by careless readers.

‏ Isaiah 44:28

Verse 28. That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd-"Who saith to Cyrus, Thou art my shepherd"] Pastor meus es; Vulg. The true reading seems to be roi attah; the word attah, has probably been dropped out of the text. The same word is lost out of the text, Ps 119:57. It is supplied in the Septuagint by the word ει, thou art.

Saying to Jerusalem] For velemor, the Septuagint and Vulgate read haomer.

And to the temple] uleheychal, as lirushalayim, before; the preposition is necessary, and the Vulgate seems to read so.-Houbigant.

That saith of CYRUS, He is, or thou art, my shepherd-Saving to JERUSALEM, "Thou shalt be built;" and to the TEMPLE, "Thy foundation shall be laid."-There is a remarkable beauty and propriety in this verse.

1. Cyrus is called God's shepherd. Shepherd was an epithet which Cyrus took to himself; and what he gave to all good kings.

2. This Cyrus should say to the temple: "Thy foundation shall be laid." Not-thou shalt be built. The fact is, only the foundation was laid in the days of Cyrus, the Ammonites having prevented the building; nor was it resumed till the second year of Darius, one of his successors. There is often a precision in the expressions of the prophets which is as honourable to truth, as it is unnoticed by careless readers.

‏ Isaiah 45:1

CHAPTER XLV

Prophecy concerning Cyrus, the first king of the Persians. Every obstruction shall be removed out of his way, and the treasures taken from his enemies shall be immense, 1-3,

To whom, and on what account, Cyrus was indebted for his wonderful success, 4-6.

The prophet refutes the absurd opinion of the Persians, that there were two supreme beings, an evil and a good one, represented by light and darkness, here declared to be only the operation of the ONE true God, 7;

and makes a transition to the still greater work of God displayed in the dispensation of the Gospel, 8.

Great impiety of those who call in question the mysterious providence of God towards his children, 9-12.

The remaining part of this chapter, interspersed with strictures on the absurdity of idolatry and some allusions to the dark lying oracles of the heathens, may partly refer to the deliverance begun by Cyrus, but chiefly to the salvation by the Messiah, which, it is declared, shall be of universal extent and everlasting duration, 13-25.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLV

Verse 1. Loose the loins of kings-"ungird the loins of kings"] See Clarke on Isa 5:27. Xenophon gives the following list of the nations conquered by Cyrus: the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians. He moreover reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacae Paphlagones, and Mariandyni.-Cyrop., lib. i. p. 4, Edit. Hutchinson, Quarto. All these kingdoms he acknowledges, in his decree for the restoration of the Jews, to have been given to him by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven. Ezr 1:2.

To open before him the two leaved gates, &c.-"That I may open before him the valves; and the gates shall not be shut"] The gates of Babylon within the city leading from the streets to the river, were providentially left open, when Cyrus's forces entered the city in the night through the channel of the river, in the general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was then celebrated; otherwise, says Herodotus, i. 191, 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 the two parties under Gobrias and Gadatas rushed in, got possession of the palace, and slew the king.-XENOPH., Cyrop. vii. p. 528.