John Calvin 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)

Into Egypt my people went down aforetime. Here also the commentators miss the mark entirely, for the Jews speculate about three captivities, and Christians differ from them by thinking that this denotes a third captivity, which will be under Antichrist, and from which Christ will deliver them.

But the Prophet’s meaning, in my opinion, is quite different. He argues from the lesser to the greater by citing the example of the Egyptian captivity, from which the people were previously recalled by the wonderful power of God (Exodus 14:28). The argument therefore stands thus: “If the Lord punished the Egyptians because their treatment of his people was harsh and unjust (Genesis 15:14), much more will He punish the Babylonians, who have cruelly tyrannized over them.”

But the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. There was much greater plausibility in Pharaoh’s claim of dominion over the Jews than in that of the Babylonians. For Jacob, having voluntarily gone down to Egypt with his family (Genesis 46:5), undoubtedly became subject to the power of Pharaoh, who, in return for the kindness received from Joseph, had assigned to him a large country and abundant pastureland.

Pharaoh’s successors, ungrateful and forgetful of the benefit bestowed on them by Joseph, afflicted all the descendants of Jacob in various ways. The Lord severely punished this ingratitude and cruelty. But far more vile and savage was the wickedness of the Babylonians, who drove the Jews out of a lawful possession and dragged them into bondage.

If then the Lord could not bear the Egyptians, who were ungrateful and ruled by unjust laws—though in other respects they had a just title to possession—still less will He endure the violent and cruel Babylonians, who have no right to govern his people and oppress them by tyranny.

By “the Assyrian,” he means the Babylonians, who were united under the same monarchy with the Assyrians. However, he takes special notice of “the Assyrian” because this power was the first that severely distressed the Jews and prepared the way for this captivity.