Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 36:22
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the historical moment in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, when the Lord acts upon the Persian ruler to issue a royal decree. The text frames this event as the immediate catalyst for the Jewish return from Babylonian exile.
The words — The Hebrew phrase לִ/כְל֥וֹת דְּבַר־יְהוָה (li/kh.Lot de.var-Yah.weh) literally means "to fulfill the word of Yahweh." This phrasing directly links Cyrus’s political decree to the prior prophetic declaration recorded in Jeremiah 25:12 and Jeremiah 29:10.
The thread — The same historical pivot appears in Ezra 1:1, which opens with the identical phrasing about Cyrus’s first year and Jeremiah’s word. The seventy-year timeframe governing this transition is established in Jeremiah 25:12 and Jeremiah 29:10 as the fixed period of Babylonian judgment.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize that political events operate within a fixed divine timeline. It demands attention to how prophetic declarations precede and structure historical outcomes without adding theological speculation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 25:12 But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
- Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
- Jeremiah 29:10 For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
- 2 Chronicles 36:21 So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah.
- Isaiah 44:28 who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd will fulfill all that I desire,’ who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundation be laid.’”
- Isaiah 13:17 Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
- Jeremiah 33:10 This is what the LORD says: In this place you say is a wasteland without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted—inhabited by neither man nor beast—there will be heard again
- Ezra 1:5 So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
- Jeremiah 32:42 For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good I have promised them.
- Daniel 10:1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, who was called Belteshazzar. The message was true, and it concerned a great conflict. And the understanding of the message was given to him in a vision.