Charles Ellicott Commentary Zechariah 10:10-11

"I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and [place] shall not be found for them. And he will pass through the sea of affliction, and will smite the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall dry up; and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart." — Zechariah 10:10-11 (ASV)

These verses are evidently patterned after Isaiah 11:11-16. Compare especially the mention of Egypt and Assyria, the reference to the dividing of the Red Sea, and the unity of Ephraim and Judah, as spoken of by Isaiah (Isaiah 10:13), and by our prophet in the preceding passage.

Egypt is, no doubt, mentioned here as the typical oppressor of Israel (Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3), as the exodus is the typical deliverance (Isaiah 11:16).

Assyria may be mentioned (and not Babylon or Persia), because it was there that the ten tribes (Ephraim) were carried away; or “out of Egypt and Assyria” may be looked upon as a stereotyped expression for deliverance; or, again, “Assyria” may actually denote Persia, as in post-captivity times the king of Persia in Babylon is often called the king of Assyria (e.g.,Ezra 6:22; 2 Kings 23:29; Herodotus 1.178-188). The second interpretation seems to us the best, in view of the figurative reference to the passage of the Red Sea in Zechariah 10:11.

Gilead and Lebanon represent the old territory of the ten tribes on the other side and on this side of Jordan.