Here to find out the Spiritual meaning of Cyrus? Continue reading for the Cyrus meaning in Hebrew. So what does Cyrus mean in the Bible? Cyrus is often used as a symbol of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
In the book of Isaiah, Cyrus is called God’s anointed one and is said to be the Lord’s shepherd for Israel. He is also called a servant who will bring about peace and restore Israel to God’s favor.
Cyrus (Old Persian Kourosh or Khorvash, modern Persian: کوروش, Kourosh) (ca. 576 – July 529 B.C.E.), also known as Cyrus the Great and Cyrus II of Persia,, was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty. As the ruler of the Persian people in Anshan, he conquered the Medes and went on to conquer the Babylonian Empire. He wrote the Cyrus Cylinder, considered to be the first declaration of human rights.
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Spiritual Meaning of Cyrus
Cyrus was a king who ruled over the Persian Empire in the sixth century BC. He was an idolater and a warlike man, but he allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple.
The Bible tells us that Cyrus’s name means “he who destroys” (Isaiah 45:1). But Cyrus did not destroy God’s people. Instead, he saved them and helped them establish their nation again by allowing them to return home and rebuild their temple.
In historical artifacts discovered in the ancient ruins of Babylon and Ur, Cyrus identifies himself as King of Iran, where he reigned from 559 B.C.E. until his death. He is the first king whose name has the words “the Great” (Vazraka in Old Persian, Bozorg in Modern Persian), a title that many other kings after him adopted, including the eventual Acheamenid Shah, Darius the Great, and Alexander the Great, who overthrew the Achaemenid dynasty two centuries after Cyrus’ death.
Cyrus Meaning in Hebrew
Like many ancient rulers, the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great (ca 590– ca 529 B.C.), also known as Cyrus II, was born of royalty. On the death of his father, Cambyses I, Cyrus ruled the Achaemenid dynasty and expanded his ancestral realm into a mighty empire. He triumphed not just through conquest but also by showing singular tolerance and mercy to those he defeated.
A brilliant military strategist, Cyrus vanquished the king of the Medes, then integrated all the Iranian tribes, whose skill at fighting on horseback gave his army great mobility. His triumph over Lydia, in Asia Minor near the Aegean Sea, filled his treasury with that country’s tremendous wealth.
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After conquering the lands surrounding Mesopotamia, Cyrus closed in on Babylon. Disgruntled over imposed forced labor and the demotion of their city’s patron deity, Marduk, the Babylonians turned against their king and saw no reason to oppose Cyrus, who was known to spare those who yielded to him. In 539 B.C., they opened their gates to the Persians, who entered the city “in peace, amidst joy and jubilation,” according to an inscription touting Cyrus’s triumph.
He honored his subjects and cared for them as if they were his own children and they, on their part, revered Cyrus as a father.
Xenophonauthor of Cyropaedia
A man of mercy
The benevolent nature of Cyrus’s reign took many forms. He placated the formerly powerful Medes by involving them in the government. He adopted the habits of dress and ornamentation of the Elamites. Across his conquered lands, he returned images of gods that had been seized in battle and hoarded in Babylon. And in Babylon itself, he publicly worshipped the city’s revered Marduk.
Cyrus’s most renowned act of mercy was to free the captive Jews, whom Nebuchadrezzar II had forced into exile in Babylon. Cyrus allowed them to return to their promised land. The Jews praised the Persian emperor in scripture as a savior to whom God gave power over other kingdoms so that he would restore them to Jerusalem and allow them to rebuild their temple.
Legacy of Benevolence
Cyrus the Great died around 529 B.C. while campaigning against defiant nomadic tribes around the Caspian Sea. Despite the bitter wars they fought against his Persian successors, the Greeks still held him in high regard in later years, which was one indication of his greatness. More than 150 years after Cyrus’s death, the Greek author Xenophon memorialized the ruler in his work, Cyropaedia.
“He honored his subjects and cared for them as if they were his own children,” Xenophon wrote, “and they, on their part, revered Cyrus as a father.”
Those words served as inspiration for at least one of America’s Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson owned not one but two copies of Cyropaedia.
Equally high praise for Cyrus’s legacy is found in modern times at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. On display is a replica of what’s called the Cyrus Cylinder. Written in Babylonian cuneiform around the time of Cyrus’s conquest of the city—and unearthed in its ruins by British archaeologists in 1879—the cylinder chronicles Cyrus’s numerous acts of mercy.
It describes his willingness to let conquered subjects retain their traditions, a practice unheard of in a time when rulers “owned” not only the conquered lands but also the people living in them. The cylinder is generally regarded as “the first bill of human rights,” and Cyrus’s reign was exemplary for ruling with pluralism and tolerance.
Judaism, saved by Cyrus
The Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
Photograph by Shutterstock, Nat Geo Image Collection
Judaism is the oldest surviving monotheistic religion, with roots dating to the second millennium B.C. Nothing was more important to the Jews than their faith, which was founded on the concept of a covenant between themselves and God. They described the history of this relationship in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
According to the Torah, God promised the lands of Canaan to his Chosen People, the Israelites, a Semitic tribe whose origins traced back to the patriarch Abraham. They founded the kingdom of Judah and established Jerusalem as its capital sometime around 1000 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the enormous Temple of Jerusalem sometime between 587 and 586 B.C. After Cyrus freed the Jews from exile in Babylon in 538 B.C., they returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and spiritual homeland.
King Croesus of Lydia
One of Cyrus’s many conquests was the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor. Among the ancient rulers, few were as rich as Croesus. His realm contained large deposits of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, which he used to produce coins—a practice that had originated in Lydia and Greece a century or so before Croesus took power around 560 B.C. His wealth made him the subject of legend.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Croesus met the wise Athenian ruler Solon and asked if wealth did not ensure happiness. Solon replied, “He who possesses great stores of riches is no nearer happiness than he who has what suffices for his daily needs.” Herodotus viewed Cyrus’s defeat of Croesus as proof that wealth does not guarantee fulfillment.
Meaning of Cyrus in English
Cyrus is one of the few Old Testament characters who is portrayed as having a positive relationship with God. He was an important figure in the Persian Empire, and his name is still used today to refer to those who are generous and noble (like Cyrus). He was also known for his acts of kindness and mercy towards the Jews after he conquered Babylon, which included freeing them from captivity and allowing them to return home.
Cyrus’s story is one of redemption—he started off as a pagan king but later became a friend to God’s people. He even helped rebuild Jerusalem, which had been destroyed earlier by Nebuchadnezzar II (another important figure in Jewish history).