Isaiah 11:11 - Exposition

The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover , etc. The first recovery was from the servitude in Egypt. Isaiah now foresees that there will be a dispersion of the Israelites through several distant lands, instead of a mere transference of them from one land to another, as in Jacob's time ( Genesis 46:1-29 ). God, who brought them out of Egypt, will likewise some day "set his hand" to recover them from the various countries through which they will have been dispersed, and restore them to their own land once more. The first fulfillment of the prophecy was undoubtedly, the return from the Babylonian captivity. A secondary fulfillment may have been the gathering of so many Jews from all quarters into the Christian Church ( Acts 2:9-41 ). It is possible that there may be ultimately a further fulfillment in a final gathering together of Israel into their own land. From Assyria . Assyria is placed first because already the bulk of the Israelites, as distinct from the Jews, had been carried into Assyria by Tiglath-Pileser ( 2 Kings 15:29 ) and Sargon ( 2 Kings 17:6 ; 2 Kings 18:11 ), and were captives there at the time when Isaiah wrote. The transportation of Israelites to the other places mentioned was subsequent to his day. Egypt … Pathros . There was a great migration of Jews into Egypt in the time of Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 43:7 ; Jeremiah 44:1 ), and a steady influx for some generations under the early Ptolemies. There was also a second large migration in the time of Onias. The Jewish element in Alexandria for some centuries both before and after Christ was very considerable. Pathros was probably a portion of Upper Egypt, perhaps the Phaturite nome, which was the district about Thebes. It is mentioned as the residence of certain Jews in the time of Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 44:1 , Jeremiah 44:15 ). From Cush. "Cush" here may he either the African or the Asiatic. It is slightly in favor of the African that we hear in the Acts of an Ethiopian eunuch who was a Jew in the service of Candace, Queen of the African Ethiopia ( Acts 8:27 ). And it is against the Asiatic that it was so remote. It adjoined, however, upon Elam. From Elam, and from Shinar . "Elam" was the fertile tract of alluvial land to the east of the Tigris, between that stream and the mountains, parallel with Babylonia. Its capital was Susa, and in Isaiah's time it was an important country, frequently at war with Assyria. Shinar was an ancient name of Babylonia ( Genesis 10:10 ; Genesis 11:1-9 ). The word is used also by Daniel ( Daniel 1:2 ) and Zechariah ( Zechariah 5:11 ). Some regard it as meaning "the land of the two fleers ." From Hamath. (On this town, see note to Isaiah 10:9 .) From the islands of the sea ; i.e. the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. During the Maccabee period, there was a gradual spread of Jews over the Western world. Alliances were made with Rome end Sparta (1 Macc. 8:1; 12:2-21; 14:20-23, etc.), and Jews became familiar with both Greece and Italy. St. Paul finds numerous Jews at Rome, and in almost every city of Greece.