The Cyrus Cylinder
“Yahweh says this: When the seventy years granted to Babylon are over, I shall intervene on your behalf and fulfill my favorable promise to you by bringing you back to this place . . . Yahweh declares: I shall bring you back to the place from which I exiled you”—Jeremiah 29:10,14 NJB
God had had his prophet Jeremiah, in chapters 25 and 29, to foretell that the Jews would be released from Babylonian captivity after 70 years, and be allowed to return to their homeland. Yahweh’s prophet Isaiah foretold 200 years in advance that God would use Cyrus to release the Jews from Babylonian captivity and enable them to rebuild Jerusalem and their Temple: