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The Companion Bible has a note here which reads:
The Assyrian. This was "another king" (Acts 7: 18), the first of a new dynasty, the
"new king" of Exod. 1: 8, who (of course) "knew not Joseph", "oppressed them". This
refers to Exod. 1:, and has nothing to do with the later Assyrian carrying away.
If we were certain of the Pharaoh of the oppression, we could be certain that the
above note was correct or incorrect. If we turn however to Appendix No.37 of The
Companion Bible, we shall find cause to suspend judgment here:
"It was intended to include a list of the Pharaohs mentioned in Genesis and Exodus,
and an elaborate table had been drawn up. But, as the data are still incomplete, and
scholars and explorers are not fully agreed, it is felt to be wisest to postpone a subject
which is still a subject of controversy."
Consequently, we too, must be wise and refrain from committing the Bible to an
historical inexactitude. The oppressing Pharaoh may have been an Assyrian but again he
may not. Isaiah may have referred to the ancient bondage of Egypt, or to the more recent
captivity of Israel under the Assyrians, mentioned for example in II Kings 17: 6. This
captivity is dated in the year 611 by The Companion Bible, and the fifty second chapter
of Isaiah is dated 603-588 in the same work. This captivity then was of recent date, and
the shadow of the Assyrian is thrown across the book as we have already seen. In the
light of this fact the balance is in favour of interpreting this passage as of two
oppressors--Pharaoh, and the more recent Assyrian.
The Lord looked at His captive people and said:
"What have I here? saith the Lord, that My people are taken away for nought?" (52: 5).
One of the saddest results of Israel's affliction and captivity was not the effect it had
upon themselves merely, but the way in which the name of the Lord their God was
blasphemed:
"They that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord;
and My name
continually every day is blasphemed" (52: 5).
This concern for the name of the Lord, is uppermost in the hearts of such men as
Daniel as they thought and prayed for their captive brethren, as a reading of Dan. 9:
will show.
We must not pass on to other parts of this prophecy however, without a further
reference to Isa. 52: 3:
"For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought: and ye shall be
redeemed without money."
There is an evident allusion here to the law concerning the redemption of "land"
(Lev. 25: 23-27) or of a "person" (Lev. 25: 35-42), and the reader is doubtless
sufficiently instructed in the law of the Kinsman Redeemer not to necessitate long