Esdras 1:2

2 «Esto dice Ciro, rey de Persia:
“El Señor
, Dios del cielo, me ha dado todos los reinos de la tierra. Me encargó construirle un templo en Jerusalén, que está en Judá.

Esdras 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 1:2

Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia
Of whom, and this edict of his, Isaiah prophesied two hundred years before he was born, ( Isaiah 44:28 )

the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth;
many he had conquered before he took Babylon, and then the whole Babylonian monarchy fell into his hands. Herodotus ^F12 says, he ruled over all Asia; Xenophon ^F13 reckons up many nations that were under his government, Medes and Hyrcanians, Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, Sacae or Scythians, Paphlagonians, Megadinians, and many other nations, the Greeks inhabiting Asia, and the Cyprians, and Egyptians; and elsewhere he says ^F14, the borders of his kingdom were, to the east the Red sea, to the north the Euxine Pontus, to the west Cyprus and Egypt, and to the south Ethiopia. And the possession of these kingdoms Cyrus ascribes, not to his own martial courage and skill, but to the providence and disposal of the God of heaven, which he seems to have had some notion of:

and he hath charged me to build an house at Jerusalem, which is in
Judah;
in the prophecy of Isaiah, which, according to Josephus ^F15, he had seen and read, and believed it to be a charge upon him, and a command unto him to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem; however, to give leave for the rebuilding of it, and to encourage to it, and assist in it; an Arabic writer says ^F16, that Cyrus married a sister of Zerubbabel, and that it was at her request that the Jews had leave to return; which is merely fabulous.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 130. So Sallust, Bell. Catalin. p. 2.
F13 Cyropaedia, l. 1. in principio.
F14 L. 8. c. 48.
F15 Antiqu. l. 11. c. 1. sect. 1, 2.
F16 Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. Dyn. 5. p. 82.

Esdras 1:2 In-Context

1 Ciro permite el regreso de los desterrados
En el primer año de Ciro, rey de Persia,
el Señor
cumplió la profecía que había dado por medio de Jeremías.
Movió el corazón de Ciro a poner por escrito el siguiente edicto y enviarlo a todo el reino:

2 «Esto dice Ciro, rey de Persia:
“El Señor
, Dios del cielo, me ha dado todos los reinos de la tierra. Me encargó construirle un templo en Jerusalén, que está en Judá.

3 Cualquiera que pertenezca a su pueblo puede ir a Jerusalén de Judá para reconstruir el templo del Señor
, Dios de Israel, quien vive en Jerusalén, ¡y que su Dios esté con ustedes!

4 En el lugar que se encuentre este remanente judío, que sus vecinos los ayuden con los gastos, dándoles plata y oro, provisiones para el viaje y animales, como también una ofrenda voluntaria para el templo de Dios en Jerusalén”».

5 Luego Dios movió el corazón de los sacerdotes, de los levitas y de los jefes de las tribus de Judá y de Benjamín, para que fueran a Jerusalén a reconstruir el templo del Señor
.