For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
Ver. 4. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden,] i.e., Thou hast disenthralled and delivered thy people from the burdenous yokes of their enemies, both corporal and spiritual; that taking thine easy yoke, thy light burden upon them, they might "serve thee without fear in holiness and righteousness before thee all the days of their lives." Luk 1:74 The Jewish doctors expound all this of Sennacherib's tyranny, and their deliverance therefrom. But the prophet intendeth a further matter Isa 9:6-7
And the staff of his shoulder.] Wherewith he was beaten and bastinadoed. thrashed See Isaiah 14:5 .
The rod of his oppressor.] Metaphora ab agasonibus, a metaphor from horse drivers, who lay on without mercy. Whipping among the Turks hath been usually inflicted even upon the greatest bashaws of the court upon the least displeasure of the tyrant, especially if they be not natural Turks born. a The poor captives met with hard measure this way at Babylon; but Satan's slaves with much harder. Christ fitly noteth here that the rod wherewith the devil whippeth sinners is their own lusts and passions; yea, herewith they punish themselves, by his instigation, as the lion beateth himself with his own tail.
As in the day of Midian.] Beaten by Gideon. Jdg 7:21 So "the day of Gibeah." Hos 9:9 "The day of Jerusalem." Psa 137:7 The battle of Agincourt, the Sicilian vespers, &c. Gideon, by the sound of trumpet and shining of lamps out of earthen broken vessels, overcame those Midianites; so by the trumpet of his Word and light of the gospel, carried through the world by weak instruments, hath Christ confounded his adversaries, 1Jn 2:14 as one fitly maketh the comparison. See it largely prosecuted in sixteen particulars in Cornelius A Lapide upon the text.
a Turkish History, 361.