to be anointed as Elijah’s successor (1 Kings. 19:16). In one place, even a pagan king (Cyrus) is referred to, metaphorically, as God’s anointed one, because he had been selected and enabled by God to fulfill a specific task: the restoration of Israel from captivity (Isaiah 45:1). But it is particularly in the anointing of the kings of Israel that mashiach gained its messianic connotations. “The anointed of the Lord” appears as a designation for the king of Israel throughout the Scripture (e.g. 1
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