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Isaiah 45 · a question people ask

Why is Cyrus called the LORD's "anointed"?

In the text

The chapter opens, "The LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus" (45:1) (tap anointed). In Hebrew anointed is mashiach, the word of "the anointed priest" (Leviticus 4:3), and of David's words about Saul, "the LORD’s anointed" (1 Samuel 24:6). Isaiah has it only here. The chapter doesn't tell of any anointing with oil. It says what the LORD does for him: "whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him" (45:1), and "I will go before you" (45:2). It says why he called him by name: "For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name" (45:4), and what his strengthening is for: "that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me" (45:6). And it says of Cyrus, "though you have not known me" (45:4). No New Testament verse names Cyrus or gives the words of 45:1, and these notes don't make him a picture of anyone.

The verses

“if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without defect to the LORD for a sin offering.”
Leviticus 4:3 · World English Bible
“He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.””
1 Samuel 24:6 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 45

Isaiah 45: There is no one else

Six times Isaiah 45 has ve'ein od, "there is no one else". It calls Cyrus the LORD's "anointed" (45:1) and says twice, "though you have not known me" (45:4, 45:5). Paul gives the oath "to me every knee will bow" with "it is written" after "the judgment seat of Christ" (Romans 14:10-11), and Philippians has "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:10).

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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