Isaiah 44:24 to Isaiah 45:8. Yahweh's Commission to Cyrus. Yahweh reminds Israel of His power as sole Creator of the universe. What He created He still controls, so that He falsifies the predictions deduced by the soothsayers from the omens, and makes the diviners look foolish, while He fulfils the predictions of His servants (read plural), the prophets. He it is who has decreed the restoration of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the cities of Judah. The hindrances are compared to a flood, which He will dry up (Exodus 14). He it is who calls Cyrus the shepherd of His people. To Cyrus, whom He has anointed for this commission, whom He supports in his career of victory, delivering to him all fortified cities, He has promised that He will go before him, smoothing difficulties from his path. Brazen gates and the iron bars that strengthen them He will shatter. He will give him the treasures hoarded in secret chambers, Babylon's spoils of conquest. Yet not for his own sake, but for Israel's, has Yahweh called him, though he knew Him not, and given him a title of honour. He, the only God, will gird Cyrus with strength, but kings who oppose him He will disarm, that all men may know He is Yahweh, sole controller of the fates of mankind. Let the heavens flood the earth with righteousness: from the womb of the earth let deliverance and prosperity spring forth, and let the earth produce the triumph of His people.
Isaiah 44:24. is: rather was, i.e. at the creation.
Isaiah 44:25. liars: render, soothsayers.
Isaiah 44:28. Oriental rulers often styled themselves shepherd of the nation.
Isaiah 45:1. loose the loins of: i.e. ungird, and consequently disarm.
Isaiah 45:7. peace: render, prosperity. create: delete as repetition from preceding clause. [If a dualistic doctrine is tacitly attacked here, whose doctrine was it? J. H. Moulton (Early Zoroastrianism, p. 220) says it was that of teachers essentially akin to the Magi. He adds: The existence of such a dualistic tendency within the field from which he drew his observations does not prove any nexus between the Magi and Babylon, unless in their accepting Babylonian ideas as they accepted Persian. But the dualism in question may quite well have been Magian and not Babylonian at all. evil: calamity, not moral evil. A. S. P.].
Isaiah 45:8. Drop down: transitive, having same object as pour down. righteousness: victory. together: render, also.