Text: Isaiah 44:28
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: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment
Significance: Isaiah 44:28 names Cyrus as God's "shepherd" (רֹעִי, ro'i) who will fulfill all God's purpose, saying of Jerusalem "Let it be rebuilt" and of the temple "Let its foundation be laid." 2 Chronicles 36:22 records the fulfillment: "the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia" to issue a decree permitting the return and temple rebuilding. The Chronicler explicitly states this was "to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah" (2 Chr 36:22), but the decree's content — commissioning temple reconstruction — matches Isaiah 44:28's prophecy precisely. Isaiah's extraordinary naming of Cyrus over a century before his reign and Chronicles' documentation of its fulfillment together form one of the clearest promise-fulfillment arcs in the prophetic corpus.