From the east... — Even from Isaiah’s stand-point, the dispersion of Israel might well be contemplated in all this wide extent. The Ten Tribes were already carried off to the cities of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6). The Babylonian exile had its beginning under Esar-haddon (2 Chronicles 33:11); others may have been found before the time of Zephaniah (Zephaniah 3:10) beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Even in the time of Joel the slave-trade of the Phœnicians had carried the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the western isles of Javan, or Ionia (Joel 3:6).
Related Commentaries of Isaiah 43:5
Isaiah 43:5
5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;