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Isaiah 44 · a question people ask

Who is Cyrus, and why does the LORD call him "my shepherd"?

In the text

The chapter gives his name and what the LORD says of him, and no more: "He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure" (44:28), in a verse that goes on to Jerusalem, "She will be built", and the temple, "Your foundation will be laid" (44:28). It doesn't say where he comes from, doesn't call him a king, and doesn't say why the LORD names him. The next chapter speaks to him: "The LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus" (Isaiah 45:1). No New Testament verse names Cyrus. These notes don't add anything about him from outside the Bible, and they don't make him a picture of anyone.

The verses

“who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’””
Isaiah 44:28 · World English Bible
“The LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:”
Isaiah 45:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 44

Isaiah 44: I am the first, and I am the last

In Hebrew the verb of the LORD who "formed you from the womb" (44:2) is the verb of "Everyone who makes a carved image" (44:9). And the man makes his god from "the rest" of the wood he burns (44:17): she'erit, the word the WEB gives elsewhere in Isaiah as remnant.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions