From Cyrus to the Mullahs |
The final words of the Hebrew Bible do not come from a prophet of Israel but from the mouth of a Persian sovereign:
“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to His people—may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.” (1)
These verses close the Book of Chronicles, which is the last book of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. (2) They therefore carry particular significance.
In the sixth century BCE, the Persian Empire overthrew Babylon and opened the way for the return of the Jewish........