Isaiah 45 — Kòresh as «anointed», radical monotheism, anti-dualism

Significance. This chapter is the apex of the oracle concerning Kòresh (Cyrus II of Persia), the foreign sovereign whom the prophetic tradition presents as the chosen instrument of the God of Israel for the liberation of the exiles and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The most theologically disruptive point is that a pagan king is called «mashìach» (v.1): this is not a messianic-eschatological title, but a functional commission, a precise historical mandate — God «takes him by the right hand», a royal gesture of investiture, yet the king «did not know him» (vv.4-5). Around this figure unfolds the central theme: radical monotheism, hammered home by the formula «I am the Tetragrammaton and there is no other» (vv.5-6.18.21-22), and its anti-dualistic corollary in v.7, where the same God «forms the light and creates the darkness, makes peace and creates calamity». The passage closes with a universal appeal to conversion (v.22) and with the divine oath of v.23, which was destined to be taken up extensively in later literature.

Historical Reconstruction

This unit belongs to the section of the prophetic work that critical tradition locates within the context of the Babylonian exile and the rise of Persia. The explicit mention of Kòresh (Cyrus) and the prospect of return («he will build my city and send back my exiles», v.13) presuppose the scenario of the years surrounding the fall of Babylon (539 B.C.) and the edict of liberation. The images of vv.1-2 — doors that do not close, bronze gates broken, iron bars cut down — reproduce the language of Mesopotamian conquest: the bronze gates of great fortified cities and the «treasures of darkness» (v.3), that is, the riches accumulated in royal treasuries, are a common topos of the royal propaganda of the era, here recast in a theocentric key. The geopolitical horizon of v.14 — Egypt, Kush, and the Sabeans «passing over» to the people — plausibly projects onto the time of restoration the idea that the powers of the South will converge toward Zion, reversing the colonial relationship that Egypt had historically imposed. The Persian king is thus framed not as an autonomous liberator, but as an unwitting executor of a design that precedes him.

Textual Notes (MT/LXX)

The Masoretic text and the Septuagint diverge at significant points. At v.1 the MT has lerad lefanàw goyìm, «to bring down nations before him», while the LXX reads epakoûsai, «to obey/listen», softening the military tone. At v.2 the MT presents a ketiv/qere variant (ketìv 'aushìr / qere 'ayashshèr, «I will make straight») concerning the «rough places» wahadurìm; the LXX simplifies to órē homaliṓ, «I will level the mountains». The most significant datum is at v.7: the MT states without any softening «I create calamity» (u-vorè' raʿ), while the LXX with the plural ktízōn kaká attenuates slightly, yet retains the affirmation that evil/calamity falls under the sovereignty of the one God. At v.8 a lexical shift is notable: the Hebrew yèshaʿ («salvation/liberation») is rendered by the LXX with éleos («mercy»). At v.18 both traditions preserve the theological key of creation: the earth «was not created tòhu» — not as formless chaos — «but to be inhabited»; the LXX ouk eis kenón… allà katoikeîsthai is a faithful rendering. At vv.13 and 14 the LXX transliterates the Hebrew Tzevaòt as sabaōth, a sign that this divine title had become a fixed technical term.

Jewish Reception (Rabbinic and Liturgical Tradition)

In the Jewish interpretive tradition, v.7 has left a precise liturgical trace. The blessing Yotzèr 'or, recited in the morning before the Shemaʿ, takes up the opening of the verse — «the one who forms the light and creates the darkness» — but substitutes the explicit «creates calamity» (raʿ) with «creates all things» (borè' et ha-kòl), avoiding the risk that the liturgical formula would sound like a direct attribution of evil to God in daily prayer. This adaptation is discussed in the Talmudic tradition (b.Berakhot 11b), which explicitly records the substitution and its rationale. The formula of v.7 also functions, in subsequent reflection, as a cornerstone against all cosmic dualism: the one God is the cause of both light and darkness, excluding any independent principle of evil. The recurring title «Holy One of Israel» (Qedòsh Yisra'èl, v.11) is received as a distinctive marker of the entire book.

Aggadah

The aggadic tradition has long reflected on the paradox of an idolatrous king designated «my anointed». In line with the reading that sees Cyrus as an instrument rather than a fully consecrated figure, the narrative exegesis emphasizes that the investiture «by the right hand» (v.1) is God's act, not the king's merit: the sovereign «did not know» the God who employed him (vv.4-5). The image of the potter and the clay (vv.9-10) nourishes the aggadic motif of the creature presuming to question the Creator: «will the clay say to the potter: what are you doing?». This motif of the yotzèr (shaper) and the chòmer (clay) is taken up and amplified in the penitential tradition — the celebrated similitude «as the clay in the hand of the potter, so are we in your hand» — which presents man as material shapeable in divine hands. The «God who hides himself» (El mistattèr, v.15) becomes in the aggadah the theme of hidden presence: God works salvation precisely when he seems absent, through unlikely instruments such as a foreign king.

New Testament Reception and Typology

The verse of greatest subsequent influence is v.23: «to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear» (MT li tikràʿ kol bèrekh tishshavàʿ kol lashòn). It is cited twice in the New Testament. In Romans 14,11 it is adduced, in a form close to the LXX («shall swear» becomes «shall confess», exomologēsetai), to ground the universal judgment before God. In Philippians 2,10-11 the text is reapplied in a christological key: «at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess». The transposition is remarkable because it transfers to Christ the homage that the MT reserves exclusively to the one God of Israel; the New Testament tradition thus performs a re-reading, not a mere citation. It should also be noted that the appeal «turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth» (v.22) and the universalist horizon of vv.20-25 are taken up in the apostolic proclamation of salvation extended to the nations. On the lexical level, the verb of v.25 (yitzdeqù, «they shall be declared righteous», forensic sense) belongs to the same semantic field that Pauline reflection will develop in the language of justification, even though it operates within a later and distinct theological problematic.

Observance and Liturgy

On the level of liturgical use, the most enduring legacy of this chapter is the morning blessing Yotzèr already mentioned, built upon the opening of v.7, which fixes in daily liturgy the confession of the one God as creator of light and darkness. The universal appeal of v.22 — «turn to me and be saved» (penù elài we-hivvashʿù) — has nourished the vocabulary of teshuvàh, «return/conversion» to God, as a movement open to «all the ends of the earth». The divine oath of v.23 («by myself I have sworn», bi nishbàʿti) is received as the supreme guarantee of the irrevocability of the divine word: a word «that shall not return» without being fulfilled, a paradigm of God's faithfulness to the covenant. Finally, the declaration of v.18 — the earth created «not a waste but to be inhabited» — is valued as the positive foundation of the world's habitability and of man's responsibility to render it an ordered dwelling, in contrast to any devaluation of creation.