Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 52:4

4 For thus [illegible: 1+ letters]aith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there , and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause .

Where they had protection and sustenance, and therefore owed subjection to the King of Egypt. And yet when he oppressed them I punished him severely, and delivered them out of his hands. Which is easily understood from the following words.

Or, but; for here is an opposition made between these two cases.

The King of Babylon, who is called the King of Assyria, 2 Kin. 23. 29. compared with ch. 24. 7. as also the Persian Emperour is called, Ezra 6. 22. because it was one and the same Empire which was possessed, first by the Assyrians, then by the Babylonians, and afterwards by the Persians.

Without any such ground or color, by meer force invading their Land, and carrying them away into Captivity. For although it be said that God gave this Land and People into his hand, 2 Chr. 36. 17. by his Counsel and Providence, yet that was neither known to, nor regarded by the King of Babylon, nor was it a good and lawful Title, Gods Word, and not his Providence, being the rule by which Mens rights are determined; otherwise a Robber hath a right to my purse, which he cannot take from me upon the high-way without Gods Providence.

Marginal references: Gen. 46. 6.; Jer. 50. 17.