Cyrus, the pagan king of Persia, is God's anointed, His mashiah, prophesied by name through Isaiah around 700 BC (Isaiah 44:24-45:13). The Hebrew term simply means one God authorizes and sets apart for His service, whether king, priest, or prophet, and its primary function is deliverance. Cyrus qualifies, though Jesus Christ is the ultimate Messiah. Cyrus, a humane and conciliatory conqueror, united the Medes and Persians, took Lydia, and entered Babylon in 539 BC almost unopposed, fulfilling Isaiah's details: the Euphrates was drawn down, and the gates were opened for him. His 538 BC decree sent the Jews home, authorized the Temple's rebuilding, and restored its articles, fulfilling the prophecy that he would free the exiles "not for price nor reward." God went before him, though he did not know Him, to prove that the LORD alone is God and that He controls light and darkness, peace and calamity. God arranged events so that Jews would live in Judea, a Temple would stand, and Jerusalem would be rebuilt for Christ's first coming. Since God works even through sinful men to accomplish His purpose, resisting Him is pointless; the proper response is obedience and zeal. Cyrus' deeds will pale beside the Kingdom of God when the real Messiah returns.

Cyrus, king of Persia, reversed the long-standing Mesopotamian Policy of Enforced Resettlement. When the Medo-Persians conquered Neo-Babylonia, he allowed not only the Jews but other conquered and displaced peoples to return to their homelands and rebuild their temples. This was a universal policy of religious tolerance, a kind of precursor to freedom of religion, and God made sure the Jews were included in it. God prophesied through Isaiah about Cyrus and the work he would do, as a kind of messiah who would return the people. Cyrus knew of these prophecies, and they may have influenced his magnanimous policy, though that is speculation. Ezra 1 states plainly that the Lord stirred up Cyrus's spirit, in the first year of his reign, to fulfill the word spoken by Jeremiah. He proclaimed throughout his kingdom, in speech and in writing, that the God of heaven had given him all the kingdoms of the earth and commanded him to build a house at Jerusalem. He invited any of God's people to go up and build, and told their neighbors to help with silver, gold, goods, and livestock. Daniel was still influential in the kingdom at that time. The return began in 538 BC under Sheshbazzar, with about 50,000 returning under him and Zerubbabel. This return was a significant step in God's plan of salvation, since it made possible Jesus Christ's birth in the land of Israel.

Cyrus was a Persian king whose empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, succeeded Babylon as sovereign over Jerusalem and the Promised Land. Because the Jews who returned from the seventy years of Babylonian captivity were vassals, they had to ask permission from Cyrus and Darius to rebuild the wall and the Temple. The Jews enjoyed a measure of peace under Persian rule, but their freedom depended on the favor of the ruling emperor. Their return under Persian authority therefore did not mean true possession of the land. Judah did not hold real sovereignty over it, and the land passed in turn to the Greeks, the Romans, and later Arab and Muslim powers.