Deuteronomy 28:68

My Notes

What Does Deuteronomy 28:68 Mean?

"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." The FINAL curse is the ULTIMATE REVERSAL: God will bring Israel back to EGYPT — the place the Exodus RESCUED them from. The ENTIRE redemptive history is UNDONE. The liberation is REVERSED. The deliverance is CANCELLED. And the final detail: they'll be offered as slaves 'and no man shall buy you' — so worthless that even as slaves, nobody wants them. The curse doesn't just return them to slavery. It returns them to slavery NOBODY WILL PAY FOR.

The phrase "bring thee into Egypt again" (veheshivkha YHWH Mitzrayim — the LORD will RETURN you to Egypt) is the ULTIMATE REVERSAL: the Exodus — Israel's founding event, the deliverance that defined the nation — is REVERSED. God BROUGHT them OUT of Egypt. Now God BRINGS them BACK. The same God. The same direction. REVERSED. The bringing-out becomes the bringing-back. The liberation becomes the re-enslavement.

The "no man shall buy you" (ve'ein qoneh — and there is no buyer) is the FINAL DEGRADATION: even as SLAVES, they have NO VALUE. Nobody will PURCHASE them. The slave-market that should produce SOME income (even for the enslaved, being bought means being FED) produces NOTHING. The worthlessness is SO COMPLETE that the commercial system REJECTS them. Even slavery — the lowest human status — is UNAVAILABLE because nobody considers them WORTH the price.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What 'Egypt' does the ultimate reversal threaten to return you to?
• 2.What does the Exodus being REVERSIBLE teach about liberation being conditional on faithfulness?
• 3.How does 'no man shall buy you' (valueless even as slaves) describe the absolute bottom?
• 4.What does the promise of 'never seeing Egypt again' being reversed by disobedience teach about conditional blessing?

Devotional

God will bring you back to EGYPT. With ships. By the way He said you'd never see again. And there you'll be offered as slaves — and NOBODY WILL BUY YOU. The ultimate curse: the Exodus REVERSED. The liberation UNDONE. And the final degradation: so worthless that even the slave-market rejects you. Nobody will pay the price for what has no value.

The 'bring thee into Egypt AGAIN' reverses the FOUNDING EVENT: the Exodus — the event that MADE Israel a nation, that DEFINED Israel's identity, that DEMONSTRATED God's power — is UNDONE. The God who brought them OUT now brings them BACK. The direction reverses. The redemption reverses. The history reverses. The nation that was BORN through the Exodus DIES through the return.

The 'by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more' makes the reversal EXPLICITLY IRONIC: God PROMISED they'd never see Egypt again (Deuteronomy 17:16). The curse BREAKS the promise — not because God is UNFAITHFUL but because Israel's DISOBEDIENCE activates the curse-clause. The promise of never-seeing-Egypt-again was CONDITIONAL on obedience. The disobedience activates the reversal. The promise becomes the irony.

The 'no man shall buy you' is VALUELESSNESS beyond slavery: the normal slave at least has COMMERCIAL VALUE — someone buys, someone pays, someone considers the slave WORTH the price. Israel in the ultimate curse is BELOW that: offered for sale AND rejected. Even the SLAVE-MARKET finds no value. The worthlessness is TOTAL: not worth fighting for (the army is defeated). Not worth keeping (sold as slaves). Not worth buying (nobody purchases). The value has reached ABSOLUTE ZERO.

What 'Egypt' — what place of former slavery — does the ultimate reversal threaten to return you to?

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture