Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great is the founder of the Persian Empire. He ruled from around 559 to 530 BC.
Cyrus allowed the communities in his empire to worship their own gods, and according to the Bible, he gave permission for the Judean exiles to return home and to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem.

Cyrus the Great became king of the Persians in 559 BC. For a long time before that, the Persians had been subject to the Medes who controlled the two different empires. But in 550 BC, Cyrus succeeded in uniting the Medes and the Persians in one kingdom.
In subsequent years, Cyrus expanded his empire by making new conquests. In 539 BC, he conquered Babylon, the capital of the Babylonian Empire. He became ruler over most of the ancient Near East and large parts of Asia.

Cyrus adopted a policy of tolerance towards the religion and customs of the nations he had conquered, and they were allowed to continue worshipping their own gods. This we know from an ancient cuneiform document written on a clay cylinder, discovered in archaeological excavations at Babylon and known as the “Cyrus Cylinder”. It states that after Cyrus had conquered Babylon, peace was restored, and he allowed exiles and refugees to return home. He rebuilt the ruined sanctuaries in Babylonia himself.

This description of political events agrees with what is written in the Bible about Cyrus. A written decree, usually known as the “Edict of Cyrus”, is referred to in Ezra 1:1-7 and Ezra 6:3-5, in which Cyrus commands the Judean exiles to go back to their own country and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

Cyrus has a special place in the Old Testament. Other foreign conquerors, such as the Babylonians, were often represented as instruments of God to punish the people of Israel (see 2 Kings 24:1-4). But Cyrus is praised as the liberator of the Judean exiles.
According to Ezra 1:2, Cyrus confesses that he owes his power to “the LORD, the God of Heaven”, and he is called “God’s shepherd” and “the anointed of the LORD” in Isaiah 44:28 and Isaiah 45:1 (ESV).