it helps to know that ‘messiah’ means ‘anointed’, as in especially chosen/appointed for a position.
In Biblical Judaism, the positions people were ‘anointed’ to fill were: king, and high priest.
Anointing with extra virgin olive oil was part of the ceremony upon getting the job.
So Cyrus as ‘anointed’ (or ‘Cyrus the messiah’) means, basically, that he had a right to his position as ruler of Persia (and, of course, all the lands subject to Persia, which included the former kingdom of Judah).
He officially permitted the Jews exiled into Babylon to return to Judah AND (most significantly) to resume a degree of national sovereignty over the area (that is, he allowed them to rebuild the temple and resume a national center in the traditional capital city of Jerusalem.
Seriously: that was HUGE. Judah had been conquered only a couple of generations previously. He was really taking an enormous chance, because the Jews COULD HAVE used that leniency of his to rebuild an army to successfully rebel against Persian rule, and his own gracious actions would have allowed it.
He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death. Thomas Paine
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