And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you. Jump to: Barnes • Benson • BI • Calvin • Cambridge • Clarke • Darby • Ellicott • Expositor's • Exp Dct • Gaebelein • GSB • Gill • Gray • Guzik • Haydock • Hastings • Homiletics • JFB • KD • King • Lange • MacLaren • MHC • MHCW • Parker • Poole • Pulpit • Sermon • SCO • TTB • WES • TSK EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE) (68) The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships.—Josephus says this was done with many of the Jews by Titus.Thou shalt see it no more again.—Deuteronomy 17:16. Ye shall be sold . . . and no man shall buy you.—Rashi explains thus: “Ye shall desire to be sold—ye shall offer yourselves as slaves to your enemies, and shall be refused, because you are appointed to slaughter and destruction. Or the sellers shall sell you to other sellers, and no one will care to keep you.” But the same word is used in the following passage by Nehemiah, “We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold to the heathen” (Nehemiah 5:8). Probably the meaning in Deuteronomy is similar: “Ye shall be sold as slaves to your enemies, and there will be no one to redeem you.” Deuteronomy 28:68. The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt — Which was literally fulfilled under Titus, when multitudes of them were carried thither and sold for slaves. With ships — This expression seems to be intended to remind them of that time when they went over the sea without ships, God miraculously drying up the sea before them, a time which now they would have occasion sadly to remember. By the way whereof — That is, to which place or part of the world, namely Egypt; I spake unto thee, thou shalt see it no more again — Referring to what he had said, Deuteronomy 17:16. This is also well illustrated by the bishop. “They had come out of Egypt triumphant, but now they should return thither as slaves. They had walked through the sea as dry land at their coming out, but now they should be carried thither in ships. They might be carried thither in the ships of the Tyrian or Sidonian merchants, or by the Romans, who had a fleet in the Mediterranean, and this was a much safer way of conveying so many prisoners than sending them by land. It appears from Josephus, that in the reigns of the first two Ptolemies many of the Jews were slaves in Egypt. And when Jerusalem was taken by Titus, of the captives who, as we have observed on Deuteronomy 28:62, were sent into Egypt, those under seventeen were sold: but so little care was taken of these captives, that eleven thousand of them perished for want. The markets were overstocked with them, so that Josephus says, in another place, they were sold with their wives and children at the lowest price, there being many to be sold, but few purchasers.” And we learn from St. Jerome, “that after their last overthrow by Adrian, many thousands of them were sold, and those who could not be sold were transported into Egypt, and perished by shipwreck or famine, or were massacred by the inhabitants.” Hegesipus also says, “There were many captives offered for sale, but few buyers, because the Romans disdained to take the Jews for slaves; and there were not Jews remaining to redeem their countrymen.” There ye shall be sold - Rather, "there shall ye offer yourselves, or be offered for sale." This denunciation was literally fulfilled on more than one occasion: most signally when many thousand Jews were sold into slavery and sent into Egypt by Titus; but also under Hadrian, when numbers were sold at Rachel's grave Genesis 35:19. No man shall buy you - i. e. no one shall venture even to employ you as slaves, regarding you as accursed of God, and to be shunned in everything. by the way whereof I spake unto thee, thou shall see it no more again; the Targum of Jonathan is,"the Word of the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again in ships;''even the same divine Word, the Son of God, that brought them out of it, and went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire, now provoked by their rejection of him, would lead them back again thither; the paraphrast adds,"through the midst of the Red sea, in the path in which ye passed;''as if they were carried over into Egypt in ships, just in that part of the sea in which they had passed before; but that was an unknown and unseen path, after the waters were closed up, and never to be seen more, and which is here meant; for not Egypt, but the way in which they passed, was to be seen no more: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and for bondwomen, and no man shall buy you; that is, there in Egypt they would be offered to sale, and so many would be sold until the market was glutted with them, and there would be no buyers. The Targum of Jonathan is,"ye shall be sold there at first to your enemies, at a dear price, as artificers, and afterwards at a mean price as servants and handmaids, until ye become despised, and be brought to serve for nothing, and there be none to take you in.''Jarchi interprets it of they themselves being desirous, and seeking to be sold, to avoid cruelties and death; which agrees with the sense of the word, which may be rendered, "ye shall offer yourselves for sale"; but there will be no buyer, because their enemies will determine upon the slaughter and consumption of them; and to the same purpose Aben Ezra. There were such numbers of them to be sold both at Egypt and at Rome, that the sellers of them had but a poor market for them; and it seems not only because of their number, but the ill opinion had of them as servants. Hegesippus (b) says,"there were many to be sold, but there were few buyers; for the Romans despised the Jews for service, nor were there Jews left to redeem their own.''It is said (c), that thirty were sold for a penny; a just retaliation to them, who had sold their Messiah for thirty pieces of silver. (w) Hecataeus apud Joseph. contr. Apion, l. 1. sect. 22. (x) Antiqu. l. 12. c. 2. sect. 1.((y) De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 2.((z) Hieron. in Zech. ii. fol. 120. I.((a) De Termino Vitae, l. 3. sect. 3. p. 131, 132. (b) De excidio Urb. Hieros. l. 5. c. 47. p. 645. (c) Ib. p. 680. (z) Because they were unmindful of that miracle, when the sea made room for them to pass through. EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES) 68. into Egypt] A startling climax but one very natural to D, which has dwelt so frequently on the evils endured by Israel in the house of bondmen (see on Deuteronomy 6:12, and cp. Deuteronomy 17:16). Even Hosea (Hosea 8:13) had predicted a return to Egypt as a punishment for Israel’s sins. Therefore here again there is no datum incompatible with a pre-exilic authorship. Vatke (Einl. 385) sees in this v. proof of a date subsequent to the defeat of Josiah by Egypt at Megiddo.69. Editorial Note This v. along with the next definitely divides the addresses which precede and follow it. To which does it belong? These may refer to either. By some (Knob., Kuen., Westph., Dri., Moore, Robinson) it is taken as the subscription to the preceding discourse and original to D, on the grounds that words of the covenant = terms of the covenant, and is more applicable to the laws, Deuteronomy 28:12-26 (with the attached blessings and curses in 28) than to the general exhortations of Deuteronomy 28:29 f. By others (Ew., Dillm., Addis, Steuern., Berth., Oxf. Hex., Cullen) the v. is taken as the superscription to the following discourse on these grounds, that there are no subscriptions elsewhere in Deut., that the language is not D’s, that D does not use covenant of the law-giving in Moab, but that the idea of this as a covenant prevails in 29 (Deuteronomy 28:9; Deuteronomy 28:12; Deuteronomy 28:14). Neither opinion is wholly right; for probably the v. belonged originally neither to what precedes nor to what follows it. Steuern.’s interpretation of words of the covenant as words spoken at the close or settlement of this—‘the sermon on the conclusion of the covenant’—is in itself forced and is contradicted by Deuteronomy 29:9, which says that Israel are to keep and to do the words of the covenant, vbs. applied elsewhere to the laws given in Moab, the statutes and judgements. Therefore Deuteronomy 29:1 clearly refers to the contents of D’s law-book, 12–26. But it cannot be original to this. For it has children of Israel (as has the editorial Deuteronomy 4:44 ff. q.v.) instead of D’s all Israel; and its word for besides is one which appears only in later Heb. writings, save for the doubtful exception of Deuteronomy 4:35 (which possibly is also late). Moreover the following discourse has already a superscription. Verse 68. - Worst of all, they should be again reduced to bondage, carried back to Egypt, put up for sale as slaves, and be so utterly despicable that no one would purchase them. Bring thee into Egypt again. "If the Exodus was the birth of the nation of God as such, the return would be its death" (Schultz; cf. Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3). With ships. They came out of Egypt by land, as free men; they should be carried back imprisoned and cooped up in slave-ships. By the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no mere again. This does not refer to their being carried to Egypt in ships as different from the way by which they had come out from it, but simply to the fact that they should be carried back thither, contrary to what was expected when they so triumphantly came forth from it. There ye shall be sold; literally, shall sell yourselves; i.e. give yourselves up to be sold as slaves. Egypt may be here, as Hengstenberg suggests, "the type of future oppressors;" but there seems no reason why the passage should not be taken literally. It is a fact that, after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, the Jews were in large numbers carried into Egypt, and there subjected to most ignominious bondage; and in the time of Hadrian, multitudes of Jews were sold into slavery (Josephus, 'De Bell. Jud.,' 6:09, 2; cf. Philo, 'Flacc.' and 'Leg. ad Caium.'). Deuteronomy 28:68Last of all, Moses mentions the worst, namely, their being taken back to Egypt into ignominious slavery. "If the exodus was the birth of the nation of God as such, return would be its death" (Schultz). "In ships:" i.e., in a way which would cut off every possibility of escape. The clause, "by the way whereof I spake unto thee, thou shalt see it no more again," is not a more precise explanation of the expression "in ships," for it was not in ships that Israel came out of Egypt, but by land, through the desert; on the contrary, it simply serves to strengthen the announcement, "The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again," namely, in the sense that God would cause them to take a road which they would never have been again if they had continued in faithful dependence upon the Lord. This was the way to Egypt, in reality such a return to this land as Israel ought never to have experienced, namely, a return to slavery. "There shall ye be sold to your enemies as servants and maids, and there shall be no buyer," i.e., no one will buy you as slaves. This clause, which indicates the utmost contempt, is quite sufficient to overthrow the opinion of Ewald, Riehm, and others, already referred to at pp. 928, 929, namely, that this verse refers to Psammetichus, who procured some Israelitish infantry from Manasseh. Egypt is simply mentioned as a land where Israel had lived in ignominious bondage. "As a fulfilment of a certain kind, we might no doubt adduce the fact that Titus sent 17,000 adult Jews to Egypt to perform hard labour there, and had those who were under 17 years of age publicly sold (Josephus, de bell. Jud. vi. 9, 2), and also that under Hadrian Jews without number were sold at Rachel's grave (Jerome, ad Jeremiah 31). But the word of God is not so contracted, that it can be limited to one single fact. The curses were fulfilled in the time of the Romans in Egypt (vid., Philo in Flacc., and leg. ad Caium), but they were also fulfilled in a horrible manner during the middle ages (vid., Depping, die Juden im Mittelalter); and they are still in course of fulfilment, even though they are frequently less sensibly felt" (Schultz). Links Deuteronomy 28:68 InterlinearDeuteronomy 28:68 Parallel Texts Deuteronomy 28:68 NIV Deuteronomy 28:68 NLT Deuteronomy 28:68 ESV Deuteronomy 28:68 NASB Deuteronomy 28:68 KJV Deuteronomy 28:68 Bible Apps Deuteronomy 28:68 Parallel Deuteronomy 28:68 Biblia Paralela Deuteronomy 28:68 Chinese Bible Deuteronomy 28:68 French Bible Deuteronomy 28:68 German Bible Bible Hub |