continued = continued in office. See first occurance: Exo_25:30. Dan_25:30, also Exo_27:20; Exo_28:29, Exo_28:30, Exo_28:38; Exo_29:38, Exo_29:42; Exo_30:8, &c. Compare Eze_39:14, "continual employment".
the first year of king Cyrus: i.e. during the whole period of Babylonian supremacy over Israel for sixty-nine years (495-426 = 69). It does not say that he did not continue longer, but that he lived to see that important epoch. Compare Dan_10:1; and see App-57and App-58.