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Isaiah 43 · a question people ask

"I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place" (43:3). What does that mean?

In the text

The verse doesn't say when, or how, and it names no event, and these notes don't supply one. What it does say is in its words and in the next verse. Ransom is kofer, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "the price of a life, ransom" (tap ransom), and Isaiah has the word only here. In your place is tachat, and the two verses have it three times: "Ethiopia and Seba in your place" (43:3), "therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life" (43:4) (tap instead of). And 43:4 opens, "Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you" (43:4) (tap precious), before its own "therefore I will give people in your place" (43:4). Before and after, the LORD says, "Don’t be afraid" (43:1, 43:5). These notes apply what the verses say of Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba to no nation or people today.

The verses

“But now the LORD who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.”
Isaiah 43:1 · World English Bible
“For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you, therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.”
Isaiah 43:3-5 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 43

Isaiah 43: I have called you by your name

In Hebrew, the verb of "he who formed you, Israel" (43:1) is the verb of "Before me there was no God formed" (43:10). And the LORD's "I have not burdened you … nor wearied you" (43:23) comes back turned around, "you have burdened me … You have wearied me" (43:24), just before "I will not remember your sins" (43:25).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions