Text: Isaiah 44:13
OT Text Referred to: 2 Chronicles 36:22
Subject: his anointed one Cyrus to commission rebuilding of temple
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Isaiah 44:13 describes an idol-maker who "fashions" (יְתָאֲרֵהוּ, yeta'arehu) a human figure from wood — a satirical portrait within Isaiah's polemic against idol worship (44:9-20). The contrast with 2 Chronicles 36:22 is theological: while craftsmen fashion lifeless wooden gods, the living God "stirs up the spirit of Cyrus" (הֵעִיר יְהוָה אֶת־רוּחַ כֹּרֶשׁ) to issue the decree restoring Israel. The juxtaposition in Isaiah 44 between the impotence of carved idols and the power of God to name and commission a foreign king demonstrates that Israel's God acts in history while the nations' gods cannot even speak.