13 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the (e) bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
(e) I have set you at full liberty, while before you were as beasts tied in bands.
I am the Lord your Lord, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt,.... Who, having done that, was able to fulfil the above promises; and which may be considered as an earnest and pledge of them, as well as be a motive to the Israelites, and an obligation upon them to obey the commandments of God, and walk in his statutes:
that ye should not be their bondmen; this was the end of their being brought out of Egypt, that they might be no longer in a state of bondage to the Egyptians, nor to any other, but to serve the Lord their God, by whom they were delivered; as those who are redeemed by Christ from worse than Egyptian bondage, from sin, Satan, and the law, are redeemed, that they might not be the servants of any, but be a peculiar people, zealous of good works to serve the Lord Christ:
and I have broken the bands of your yoke; which fastened it on their shoulders, that is, set them at full liberty, from the yoke of all their enemies, particularly the Egyptians, who made their lives bitter in hard bondage, making the yoke of it heavy upon them; as Christ has broken the yoke of spiritual enemies from off the shoulders and necks of his people, Isaiah 10:27,
and made you go upright; who before stooped under the yoke, as well as were of dejected countenances, but now were made to walk in an erect stature, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra, or in liberty, as Onkelos; see Galatians 5:1; and with heads lift up and countenances cheerful.
I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright--a metaphorical expression to denote their emancipation from Egyptian slavery.
For He was their God, who had brought them out of the land of the Egyptians, that they might no longer be servants to them, and had broken the bands of their yokes and made them go upright. על מטת, lit., the poles of the yoke (cf. Ezekiel 34:27), i.e., the poles which are laid upon the necks of beasts of burden (Jeremiah 27:2) as a yoke, to bend their necks and harness them for work. It was with the burden of such a yoke that Egypt had pressed down the Israelites, so that they could no longer walk upright, till God by breaking the yoke helped them to walk upright again. As the yoke is a figurative description of severe oppression, so going upright is a figurative description of emancipation from bondage. קוממיּוּת, lit., a substantive, an upright position; here it is an adverb (cf. Ges. 100, 2).
Upright - With heads lifted up, not pressed down with a yoke. It notes their liberty, security, confidence and glory.
*More commentary available at chapter level.