Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
The Lord God of heaven - Or, "Yahweh, the God of heaven." In the original Persian, the document probably ran - " Ormazd, the God of heaven." The Hebrew transcript took "Yahweh" as the equivalent of "Ormazd." The Persian notion of a single Supreme Being - Ahura-Mazda, "the much-knowing, or much-bestowing Spirit" - did, in fact, approach nearly to the Jewish conception of Yahweh.
Hath given me all the kingdoms ... - There is a similar formula at the commencement of the great majority of Persian inscriptions.
He hath charged me to build him an house - It is a reasonable conjecture that, on the capture of Babylon, Cyrus was brought into contact with Daniel, who drew his attention to the prophecy of Isaiah Isaiah 44:28; and that Cyrus accepted this prophecy as a "charge" to rebuild the temple.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Ezra 1:2:
Genesis 1:24-31
2 Chronicles 36:22
Ezra 3:7
Nehemiah 1:4
Psalms 126:2
Isaiah 14:2
Isaiah 41:2
Isaiah 41:25
Isaiah 44:28
Isaiah 45:2
Isaiah 45:3
Isaiah 45:4
Isaiah 45:13
Isaiah 52:10
Daniel 2:39
Daniel 9:25
Obadiah 1:1
Jonah 1:9
Micah 2:12
Zephaniah 2:12
Romans 1:1
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