Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 52:4

"For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian hath oppressed them without cause." — Isaiah 52:4 (ASV)

For thus says the Lord God — In order to show them that he could redeem them without money, God reminds them of what had been done in former times. The numerous captives in Egypt, whose services were so valuable to the Egyptians and whom the Egyptians were so unwilling to allow to depart, he had rescued by his own power and had delivered forever from that bondage. The idea here is, that with the same ease he could rescue the captives in Babylon, and restore them to their own land without a price.

My people went down — That is, Jacob and his sons. The phrase ‘went down,’ is applied to a journey to Egypt, because Judea was a mountainous and elevated country compared with Egypt, and a journey there was in fact a descent to a more level and lower country.

To sojourn there — Not to dwell there permanently, but to remain there only for a time. They went in fact only to remain until the severity of the famine should have passed by, and until they could return with safety to the land of Canaan.

And the Assyrians oppressed them without cause — A considerable variety has existed in the interpretation of this passage. The Septuagint renders it, ‘And to the Assyrians they were carried by force.’ Some have supposed that this refers to the oppressions that they experienced in Egypt, and that the name ‘Assyrian’ is here given to Pharaoh. So Forerius and Cajetan understand it. They suppose that the name ‘the Assyrian’ became, in the understanding of the Jews, the common name for that which was proud, oppressive, and haughty, and might therefore be used to designate Pharaoh. But there are insuperable objections to this.

It is not true that Pharaoh was an Assyrian; nor is it true that the Israelites were oppressed by the Assyrians while they remained in Egypt. Others have supposed that this refers to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans in general, and that the name ‘the Assyrian’ is given to them in a broad and general sense, as ruling over what constituted the empire of Assyria, and that the prophet here refers to the calamities they were suffering in Babylon. But the objection to this is no less decisive.

It is true that Babylon was formerly a part or province of Assyria, and it is also true that in the time of the Jewish captivity it was the capital of the kingdom of which the former empire of Assyria became a subject province. But the name Babylonian, in the Scriptures, is kept distinct from that of Assyrian, and they are not used interchangeably. Nor does the connection of the passage require us to understand it in this sense. The whole passage is highly elliptical, and something must be supplied to make out the sense. Its general design is to show that God would certainly deliver the Jews from the captivity at Babylon without money.

A paraphrase of the passage, and a filling in of the parts omitted in the prophet's brief and abrupt manner, will show the sense. ‘You have been sold for nought, and you shall be ransomed without price.

As a proof that I can do it and will do it, remember that my people formerly went down to Egypt and intended to sojourn there for a little time. They were reduced to slavery there and oppressed by Pharaoh, but I ransomed them without money and brought them out by my own power.

Remember, further, how often the Assyrian has also oppressed them without cause. Remember the history of Sennacherib, Tiglath-pileser, and Salmaneser, and how they have laid the land waste; and remember also how I have delivered it from these oppressions.

With the same certainty, and the same ease, I can deliver the people from the captivity at Babylon.’

The prophet, therefore, refers to different periods and events. The idea is that God had delivered them when they had been oppressed by both the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and that he who had so often intervened would also rescue them from their oppression in Babylon.