Footnote 2 – Cyrus the Messiah

Traditional exegetes have taken this passage to refer to Abraham and his encounter with the several kings described in Genesis 14. References to Cyrus by name in the second half of the book of Isaiah have led modern scholars to conclude that this is a description of Cyrus’s activities against the Medes, the Lydians and finally the Babylonians—the great powers of the day. In the passage here, Cyrus is not mentioned by name, but the description of him is the same as in Isaiah 45:1–13, where his name is explicitly stated.