Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 11:16

"And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, that shall remain, from Assyria; like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." — Isaiah 11:16 (ASV)

And there shall be a highway for the remnant ... —The “highway” is, as in Isaiah 19:23; Isaiah 49:11, and elsewhere, the raised, embanked road, made by Eastern kings for the march of their armies. Such a road the prophet sees in his vision (here as in Isaiah 40:3), stretching across the great plains of Mesopotamia for the return of Israel. This highway was to be for that “second time” of restoration what the passage of the Red Sea had been for the “first time” of the Exodus. For the exiles in Assyria, it was to be what another passage of the Egyptian sea was to be for those in Egypt.