Isaiah 43:3-4

3, 4. I gave Prophetic preterit for I will give.

Egypt for thy ransom Ransom from exile in Babylon through Cyrus. At a later time Cambyses took Egypt and made her subject, along with Ethiopia and Seba, on the upper Nile. Seba being, according to Josephus, between the Black and the White Nile branches. For the value Jehovah set on his recovered Israel he gave the restoring world-power those peoples who, for deserved judgment, received humiliation. This is simple amplification of meaning to the words, “I have redeemed thee,” etc., in Isaiah 43:1.

Ransom An idea from a law of Moses requiring the firstborn to be ransomed. Israel was Jehovah’s firstborn. “Egypt,” rather than others who also became subject, from her connexion with the first slavery of Israel. See Exodus 1:11.