পাতা:দানিএল মুনির চরিত্র.djvu/২১৩

208 then feelingly exclaimed one and all, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” God never wants suitable instruments for the accomplishment of his will. When therefore he hati determined to punish the Jews for their oftrepeated idolatry and disobedience to his commands, he raised up Nebuchadnezzar to carry them into captivity in a foreign land; and now again, when the time of their release drew near, he raised u p Cyrus, in like manner, to set them at liberty. The prophet Isaiah had foretold, nearly two hundred years before, that a person of ຕໍ່is name should restore his captive countrymen to their native land, which prophetic announcement was thus accomplished. Cyrus was the son of Cambyses, king of Persia, by Mandane, daughter of Astyages, and sister of Cyaxares, both kings of Media. He was also distantly related to Belshazzar the then king of Babylon. He had been from a child of temperate, regular, and