“I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.”
– Isaiah 45:13 KJV
There’s something radical in this verse: liberation that cannot be bought, a building that is not funded by coercion, and a righteousness that isn’t earned. In a world obsessed with transactions: quid pro quo, pay-to-play, even spirituality commodified. Isaiah slips in a disruptive announcement: God raises, directs, builds, and frees without asking for a receipt.
The figure here, often read historically as Cyrus of Persia, becomes in the mystical sense an archetype of Christ: the One raised in righteousness to embody God’s justice and mercy, the One who sets captives free not by bargaining with empire but by unveiling their captivity as illusion. The city to be built is not merely bricks in Jerusalem, but the living city of humanity awakened to its divine indwelling.
Mystically speaking, “captivity” is any story that convinces us we are less than who God has always declared us to be. It’s the bondage of false identity: shame, fear, unworthiness. The Christ-reality does not come with price tags or sacrificial payoffs; it is a free unveiling of the truth that was always there. The captives are “let go” when they awaken to the fact that they were never truly owned by the powers of domination.
Notice the cadence: I have raised… I will direct… he shall build… he shall let go. This is divine initiative from start to finish. No reward required. No transactional God keeping ledgers. Righteousness here is not moral bookkeeping, but rightness- alignment, harmony, the restoration of wholeness.
For the contemplative, this verse becomes a mantra: your liberation does not depend on payment, penance, or performance. God’s ways direct you even when you don’t know the road. The “city” you are called to build may be as intimate as ‘peace'(jeru salem) in your own heart, or as expansive as justice in your community. Both are part of the same architecture.
And interspiritually, this resonates with other wisdom traditions: in Buddhism, the bodhisattva does not awaken for a prize but for the joy of liberation shared. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches nishkama karma: action without attachment to reward. Isaiah 45:13 hums in the same key: true freedom is free because it was never for sale.
So the call is this: live unbought. Release others without demanding repayment. Build the city of love without waiting for recognition. For the LORD of hosts says: this is the only way freedom has ever truly worked.
Selah 
Thanks for reading 
By Anthony Osuya (Saint Anthony)