In October 539 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus took Babylon, the ancient capital of an oriental empire covering modern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. In a broader sense, Babylon was the ancient world's capital of scholarship and science. The subject provinces soon recognized Cyrus as their legitimate ruler. Since he was already lord of peripheral regions in modern Turkey and Iran (and Afghanistan?), it is not exaggerated to say that the conquest of Babylonia meant the birth of a true world empire. The Achaemenid empire was to last for more than two centuries, until it was divided by the successors of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. A remarkable aspect of the capture of Babylon is the fact that Cyrus allowed the Jews (who were exiled in Babylonia) to return home.

"Second Isaiah" or "Deutero-Isaiah" is the name of the chapters 40-55 of the Biblical book of Isaiah, which were added to the "real" text of Isaiah. The second prophet predicts the coming of king Cyrus, who will liberate the Jews from their Babylonian Captivity and will bring them to the Promised Land. It may be noted that Cyrus was considered by the Jews a monotheist, an opinion that was more or less correct, since many Persians venerated the "wise lord" Ahuramazda who was the eternal enemy of an evil god named Angrya Manyu. Persian religion also stressed that people should be honest and righteous, and it is possible that these ideas about a wise Lord with an ethical message influenced the lines 45.7-8 quoted below.

This Jewish text confirms Cyrus' own propaganda that he was chosen by the supreme god to liberate Babylon. An interesting detail is that line 45.1 contains an old prediction of the coming of a special anointed one (i.e., the Messiah).