Skip to content
mannafest.faith

2 Chronicles 36:22

in 2 Chronicles 36

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:

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

KJV

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,

This verse in 2 Chronicles 36

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Now in the first year of Cyrus - This and the following verse are supposed to have been written by mistake from the book of Ezra, which begins in the same way. The book of the Chronicles, properly speaking, does close with the twenty-first verse, as then the Babylonish captivity commences, and these two verses speak of the transactions of a period seventy years after. This was in the first year of the reign of Cyrus over the empire of the East which is reckoned to be A.M. 34

This site's exposition

the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus

on 2 Chronicles 36:22-23

The Hebrew Bible's last chapter turns on a pagan king: “the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia” to fulfill Jeremiah's word. The same words open Ezra 1:1-3, and Adam Clarke reads the two verses as carried from Ezra's opening.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

They are there the introduction to a pleasant story; here they are the conclusion of a very melancholy one; and so we learn from them that, though God's church be cast down, it is not cast off, though his people be corrected, they are not abandoned, though thrown into the furnace, yet not lost there, nor left there any longer than till the dross be separated.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

The L ORD his God be with him, and let him go up. These last two verses of this book have a double aspect. They look back to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and show how that was accomplished,
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

The destruction of Judah and Jerusalem is here coming on by degrees. God so ordered it to show that he has no pleasure in the ruin of sinners, but had rather they would turn and live, and therefore gives them both time and inducement to repent and waits to be gracious. The history of these reigns was more largely recorded in the last three chapters of the second of Kings.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

This and the next verse are repeated at the commencement of the book of Ezra Ezr 1:1-3, which was, it is probable, originally a continuation of Chronicles, Chronicles and Ezra together forming one work. See the introduction to Chronicles.

The words behind it

24 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּבִשְׁנַ֣תand in year

    uvishnatH8141 →877 times

  • אַחַ֗תone

    ʾachatH259 →971 times

  • לְכ֙וֹרֶשׁ֙of Cyrus

    lekhoreshH3566 →15 times

  • מֶ֣לֶךְ[the] king of

    melekhH4428 →2525 times

  • פָּרַ֔סPersia

    parasH6539 →28 times

  • לִכְל֥וֹתto fulfill

    likhlotH3615 →208 times

  • דְּבַר־[the] word of

    devar-H1697 →1440 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • בְּפִ֣יby [the] mouth of

    befiH6310 →498 times

  • יִרְמְיָ֑הוּJeremiah

    yirmeyahuH3414 →147 times

  • הֵעִ֣ירhe stirred up

    heirH5782 →

  • יְהוָ֗הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • ר֙וּחַ֙[the] spirit of

    ruachH7307 →378 times

  • כּ֣וֹרֶשׁCyrus

    koreshH3566 →15 times

  • מֶֽלֶךְ־[the] king of

    melekh-H4428 →2525 times

  • פָּרַ֔סPersia

    parasH6539 →28 times

  • וַיַּֽעֲבֶר־and he caused to pass

    vaiyaaver-H5674 →556 times

  • קוֹל֙a proclamation

    kolH6963 →506 times

  • בְּכָל־in all

    bekholH3605 →5413 times

  • מַלְכוּת֔וֹkingdom his

    malkhutoH4438 →91 times

  • וְגַם־and also

    vegam-H1571 →769 times

  • בְּמִכְתָּ֖בin writing

    bemikhtavH4385 →9 times

  • לֵאמֹֽר׃ ס<to> saying

    lemorH559 →5305 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    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.

    it leads to

    • Daniel 9:2

      in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • Jeremiah 24:6–7

      I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.

    • Zechariah 7:5

      “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?

    • Jeremiah 32:42–44

      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.

  • Through

    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 through Jeremiah.

    it leads to

    • 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.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Leviticus 26:34–35

      Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

    • Jeremiah 25:11–12

      And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

    • Zechariah 1:12

      Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”

Where this verse is studied

What the record shows

1 entry
  • Cyrus II (the Great) — attested in contemporary inscriptionundisputed

    Cyrus Cylinder and royal inscriptions

    Biblical figure (King of Persia, 559-530 BC) identified in extra-biblical epigraphy.

    Counterpoint: The Cyrus Cylinder never mentions Jews, Judah, or Jerusalem — it is a Babylonian temple-restoration text about Marduk and Babylon. Amélie Kuhrt argued (JSOT, 1983) that it is conventional Mesopotamian royal propaganda rather than a general charter of return, so it confirms Cyrus and his style of policy, not the specific decree recorded in Ezra 1.

About 2 Chronicles

Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.
Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.