John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 43:4

"Since thou hast been precious in my sight, [and] honorable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men in thy stead, and peoples instead of thy life." — Isaiah 43:4 (ASV)

Because you were precious. Others interpret it, “You were honorable, because I raised you to honor;” but I think that God assigns the reason why he gave up Egypt and Ethiopia to the enemies in their place. It was because he loved them, and because they were dear to him.

It should be explained this way: “Because I loved you, therefore I gave a man for you.” By these words he excludes all personal worth on the part of the people, so that they may not boast of having obtained anything by their own merit. Indeed, the cause of salvation, and of all the blessings which we receive, is the undeserved love of God; it is also the cause of all our excellence, for if he judges us according to our own qualifications, he will not value us a straw.

We must therefore set aside every idea of merit, or of personal worth, of which we have none, and must ascribe everything to the grace of God alone. He means that this love is not of an ordinary kind when he says that we are “precious;” and for the same reason he calls us his first-born (Exodus 4:22) and his friends (John 15:15).

I will give a man. Here he adds nothing new, but rather explains the preceding statement, and employs the word “man” collectively for “men;” as if he had said, “There will be no man whom God will not take away and destroy, in order to preserve his people; for he sets a higher value on a single believer than on the whole world.” At the same time he reminds believers that they are redeemed at the expense of those who do not at all differ from them in origin or in nature.