What Does Ezra 1:1 Mean?
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD through the mouth of Jeremiah might be filled, the LORD roused the breath of Cyrus king of Persia, and he caused a voice to cross through all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,THE KEY
The LORD’s word reaches the world by awakening breath within a ruler until an inward stirring becomes public speech and writing.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you with a word that stays alive between being spoken and being fulfilled. The LORD stirs the breath within Cyrus, and an inward movement becomes a proclamation heard throughout his kingdom and fixed in writing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that a promise can only be fulfilled by the person who first speaks it dissolves here: the word can move through another person’s awakened breath and take public form.
THE ROOT
הֵעִיר
he'ir
GROWS FROM
עור
ʿur
Wake, awaken, rouse.
“roused” in this verse is he'ir. The verb translated “stirred up” is a causative form of the root for waking. The LORD wakes an impulse inside Cyrus, and that inward movement takes public form.
ALSO GROWS
ʿur: Wake, awake, rouse.
עוּר
This basic verb supplies the sense of waking beneath “stirred up.”
me'orer: One who awakens or rouses.
מְעוֹרֵר
Its causative sense makes the LORD the one who awakens Cyrus’s inward impulse.
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
ruach
Breath, wind, moving air; the animating movement within a person.
One Hebrew word holds breath, wind, and a person’s inward impulse; English renders it here as “spirit.” The verse presents the breath within Cyrus as something the LORD stirs, with that movement emerging as action.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Breath, wind, or animating life.
רוּחַ
These meanings belong to one word, revealing the breath and the unseen movement as connected.
ruach: A person’s inward disposition or impulse.
רוּחַ
Here it is Cyrus’s own inward life that is stirred and then expressed in speech and writing.
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
Speak; word, utterance, matter.
This root holds word, speech, and matter together. Jeremiah’s word is followed by Cyrus’s proclamation and its written form, so the spoken promise reaches the world as action.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, utterance, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
It is the word of the LORD that the verse says reaches fulfillment.
dibber: Speak, declare.
דִּבֵּר
The shared root links the prophetic word to Cyrus’s public proclamation.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD moves within a person, a spoken word crosses into visible response.
And the LORD roused the breath of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and of Joshua son of Josedech, the great priest, and the breath of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God.Then he answered and said to me, This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by army, nor by strength, but by my breath, says the LORD of hosts.And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who stood in awe of God, listened to us. The Lord opened her heart wide, and she held fast to the things Paul spoke.THE THREAD
For thus says the LORD, when seventy years are filled in Babylon, I will visit you and raise up my good word toward you, in bringing you back to this place.The Hebrew terms for “word” in both verses share the root דָּבָר (davar, word/utterance). Jeremiah names the promise the LORD performs; Ezra shows that word arriving as Cyrus’s proclamation and written decree.
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