43:3 For I [am] the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave {d} Egypt [for] thy ransom, Cush and Seba for thee.
(d) I turned Sennacherib's power against these countries, and made them suffer the affliction which you would have done, and so were as the payment of our ransom, Isa 37:9.
43:3 I gave Egypt - This was fulfilled when the king of Assyria, Esar - haddon, who designed to revenge his father's disgrace, upon the Jews, was diverted and directed by God to employ his forces against Egypt, and Ethiopia, and Seba. Seba - The Sabaeans were confederate with the Ethiopians.
43:1-7 God's favour and good-will to his people speak abundant comfort to all believers. The new creature, wherever it is, is of God's forming. All who are redeemed with the blood of his Son, he has set apart for himself. Those that have God for them need not fear who or what can be against them. What are Egypt and Ethiopia, all their lives and treasures, compared with the blood of Christ? True believers are precious in God's sight, his delight is in them, above any people. Though they went as through fire and water, yet, while they had God with them, they need fear no evil; they should be born up, and brought out. The faithful are encouraged. They were to be assembled from every quarter. And with this pleasing object in view, the prophet again dissuades from anxious fears.
