Isaiah 45: To His Anointed, to Cyrus

"Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him… to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut… For Jacob my servant's sake… I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me" (45:1–5).

"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (v. 7). "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!… Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?" (v. 9).

"Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour" (v. 15). "He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited" (v. 18). "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself… That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (vv. 22–23).

Cyrus as the gods' chosen king

The Cyrus Cylinder (539/538 BC, British Museum), written in Babylonian for Babylon, says that Marduk searched all lands for a righteous king, "called his name" Cyrus, "took him by the hand," and made him walk at his side into Babylon without battle. The parallel to Isaiah 45:1–4 ("whose right hand I have holden… I have called thee by thy name") is striking: two religious communities each claimed that their own god had chosen Cyrus. Isaiah adds that Cyrus did not know the LORD. The Cylinder says nothing about Judah or Jerusalem. See "From Babylon to Cyrus."

"I make peace, and create evil" (45:7)

Ra means "bad" in the widest sense: disaster, calamity, harm, and moral evil. Opposite shalom ("peace, well-being"), most translators take it here as "calamity" or "woe." The verse claims that nothing lies outside God's rule; some scholars read it as a denial of dualism, perhaps of a Persian-style belief in two opposed powers of good and evil, though Cyrus's own religion is debated. Jewish liturgy quotes the verse in the first blessing before the morning Shema but changes its end: "…makes peace and creates all things" (b. Berakhot 11b). The Great Isaiah Scroll reads "makes good (tov) and creates evil" (described from a transcription), sharpening the pair.

Every knee shall bow

Paul quotes 45:23 in Romans 14:11 of standing before God's judgment seat. In Philippians 2:10–11 he applies it to Jesus: "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Taking a verse in which the one God swears that every knee will bow to him and applying it to Jesus is one of the strongest statements of Jesus' divine status in the New Testament. In Isaiah, the verse concerns the LORD alone.

A God who hides himself

"Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself" (45:15, Deus absconditus in the Vulgate) became a theme in Christian theology (Luther, Pascal). In context, it may be the nations' confession that Israel's God worked hiddenly through history, or the prophet's own wonder. Charles Spurgeon (1850) traced his conversion to a sermon on 45:22, "Look unto me, and be ye saved."