Bible Commentaries

21. The word of the Lord by… Jeremiah — Jeremiah 25:9-12; Jeremiah 29:10; and the note on Ezra 1:1.

Until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths — See Leviticus 26:34-35; Leviticus 26:43. We need not assume that the observance of the sabbatic years had been neglected exactly seventy times in succession, or for the period of four hundred and ninety years preceding this exile. But it is probable that during the thousand years between Moses and the Babylonish exile as many as seventy sabbatic years had been neglected, and, at last, judgment that had seemed to slumber long, exacted all.

THE PROCLAMATION OF CYRUS, 2 Chronicles 36:22-23.

For exposition of these verses, see notes on Ezra 1:1-4.

As the books of Kings end with a notice of Jehoiachin’s release from prison, thus shedding a ray of light on Judah’s future, (see note on 2 Kings 25:30,) so these Chronicles close with a recital of the proclamation of Cyrus, the Lord’s anointed shepherd, of whom Isaiah (Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1) had prophesied long years before as “saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” It was a sound of grace, the trumpet blast that shook the dry bones of fallen Israel, (Ezekiel 37:1-14,) and raised the nation to a new and purer life. It was the opening of a new age, and our author felt he could not close his work without directing the eye of his reader across the dark gulf of his people’s exile to the dawn of a brighter era.