Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 43:3

"For I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in thy stead." — Isaiah 43:3 (ASV)

For I am the Lord your God - This verse continues the statement of the reasons why He would protect them. He was Yahweh their God. He was not only the true God, but He was the God who had entered into a solemn covenant with them, and who would therefore protect and defend them.

The Holy One of Israel - It was one of His characteristics that He was the God of Israel. Other nations worshipped other gods. He was the God of Israel; and as it was presumed that a god would protect his own people, so He bound Himself to deliver them.

Your Saviour - This was another characteristic. He had saved them in days of peril; and He had assumed toward them the relation of a Saviour; and He would maintain that character.

I gave Egypt for your ransom - This is a very important passage regarding the meaning of the word ‘ransom.’ The word נתתי (nâthattı̂y) – ‘I gave’ – is rendered by Gesenius (Commentary on this passage), and by Noyes, in the future, ‘I will give.’ Gesenius supposes that it refers to the fact that the countries specified would be made desolate to effect the deliverance of the Jews. He observes that although Cyrus did not conquer them, it was done by his successors. In particular, he refers to the fact that Cambyses invaded and subdued Egypt (Herodotus iii. 15); and that he then entered into, and subdued Ethiopia and Meroe (Strabo xvii; Josephus, Antiquities ii. 10. 2).

But the word properly refers to past time, and the scope of the passage requires us to understand it as referring to past events. For God is giving a reason why His people might expect protection, and the reason here is that He had been their deliverer. His purpose to protect them was so fixed and determined that He had even brought ruin on nations more mighty and numerous than themselves, in order to effect their deliverance.

The argument is that if He had allowed Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba to be desolated and ruined instead of them, or to effect their deliverance, they had nothing to fear from Babylon or any other hostile nation. Instead, He would bring about their deliverance even at the expense of overthrowing the mightiest kingdoms.

The word rendered ‘ransom’ here is כפר (kôpher). It is derived from כפר (kâphar) – from which come the Latin cooperio; the Italian coprire; the French couvrir; the Norman coverer, and converer; and the English cover – and means literally to cover, to cover over, or to overlay with anything, such as pitch, as in Genesis 6:14.

Hence, it means to cover over sins; to overlook; to forgive; and hence, to make an expiation for sins, or to atone for transgression so that it may be forgiven (Genesis 32:21; Exodus 30:15; Leviticus 4:20; Leviticus 5:26; Leviticus 11:24; Leviticus 16:6; Psalms 65:4; Psalms 78:38; Proverbs 16:14; Jeremiah 18:25; Ezekiel 45:20; Daniel 9:24). The noun (כפר (kôpher)) means:

1. A village or hamlet, as providing a cover or shelter to the inhabitants (1 Samuel 6:18; compare the word כפר (kâphâr) in 1 Chronicles 27:25; Nehemiah 6:2; Song of Solomon 6:12).
2. Pitch, as a material for overlaying (Genesis 6:14).
3. The cypress flower, the alhenna of the Arabs, so called because the powder of the leaves was used to cover over or besmear the nails to produce the reddish color which women in the Orient regarded as an ornament (Simonis; Song of Solomon 1:14; Song of Solomon 4:13, margin).
4. A ransom; a price of redemption, or an expiation; so called because by it sins were covered over, concealed, or removed (Exodus 29:36; Exodus 30:10, 16). In such an expiation, that which was offered as the ransom was supposed to take the place of that for which the expiation was made, and this idea is distinctly retained in the versions of this passage.

Thus the Septuagint, Ἐποίησα ἄλλαγμά σου Αἴγυπτον, κ.τ.λ. (Epoiēsa allagma sou Aigupton, etc.) – ‘I made Egypt, etc., your ἄλλαγμα (allagma) – a commutation for you; a change for you; I put it in your place, and it was destroyed instead of you.’

So the Chaldee, ‘I gave the Egyptians as a commutation for you’ (חליפך (chălı̂ypâk)).

So the Syriac, ‘I gave Egypt in your place.’ The true interpretation, therefore, is that Egypt was regarded as having been given up to desolation and destruction instead of the Israelites.

One of them had to perish; and God chose that Egypt, though so much more mighty and powerful, should be reduced to desolation in order to deliver His people. They took their place and were destroyed instead of the Hebrews, so that they might be delivered from the bondage under which they groaned.

This may be used as a striking illustration of the atonement made for sin, when the Lord Jesus, the expiatory offering, was made to suffer in the stead – ἄλλαγμα (allagma) – of His people, and so that sinners might live.

And if God’s giving up the Egyptians to destruction – themselves so guilty and deserving of death – in order to save His people, was a proof of His love for them, how much greater is the demonstration of His love when He gives His own holy Son to the bitter pains of death on a cross, so that His church may be redeemed!

There has been much variety, as has already been intimated, in the interpretation of this passage, and regarding the time and events to which it refers.

It has, by many, been supposed to refer to the invasion by Sennacherib, who, when he was about to fall upon Jerusalem, turned his arms against the Egyptians and their allies, by which means Jerusalem was saved by devoting those nations to desolation. Vitringa explains it of Shalmaneser’s design upon the kingdom of Judah, after he had destroyed that of Samaria, from which he was diverted by carrying the war against the Egyptians, Cushites, and Sabeans. But of this, Lowth says, there is no clear proof in history.

Secker supposes that it refers to the fact that Cyrus overcame those nations, and that they were given to him for releasing the Jews. Lowth says, ‘Perhaps it may mean, generally, that God had often saved His people at the expense of other nations, whom He had, as it were, given up to destruction in their place.’

The exact historical facts in this case cannot be clearly established; and it is not surprising that many things of this nature should remain obscure due to the lack of historical information, which regarding those times is extremely deficient. In regard to Egypt, however, I think the case is clear.

Nothing is more evident than that the prophet refers to that great and wonderful fact – the commonplace illustration of the sacred writers – that the Egyptians were destroyed in order to effect the deliverance of the Jews, and were thus given as a ransom for them.

Ethiopia - Hebrew, ‘Cush.’ In regard to this country, see the note at Isaiah 18:1. It is not improbable that the prophet here refers to the facts mentioned in that chapter, and the destruction which it is there said would come upon that land.

And Seba - This was the name of a people descended from Cush (Genesis 10:7), and thus the name of the country they occupied. According to Josephus (Antiquities ii. 10. 2), it seems to have been Meroe, a province of Ethiopia, distinguished for its wealth and commerce, surrounded by the two arms or branches of the Nile.

Ruins of a metropolis of the same name still remain, not far from the town of Shandy (Keppel’s Travels in Nubia and Arabia, 1829). Meroe is a large island or peninsula in the north of Ethiopia, formed by the Nile and the Astaboras, which unites with the Nile.

It was probably anciently called Seba, and was conquered by Cambyses, the successor of Cyrus, and by him called Meroe, after his sister. That it was near to Ethiopia is apparent from the fact that it is mentioned in connection with it (Isaiah 45:14; Herodotus iii. 20). They would naturally ally themselves with the Ethiopians and share the same fate.