The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 68. With ships, so that thou wilt have no means of escaping by flight. Menochius.—The Romans had a fleet in the Mediterranean, with which thy would probably convey the captives into Egypt. Josephus (Ant. xii. 2, and so forth Bel. vii. 16) informs us, that many of the Jews had been conveyed into that country after Jerusalem had been ruined by the Chaldees; ( Calmet.) and after it was at last destroyed by the Romans, some of “those who were above 17 years of age, were sent thither in chains to work at the public works;” others were reserved to grace the victor’s triumph, or “to be destroyed by the sword, or by wild beasts in the theatres, while those who were under 17, were sold. During the time that Fronto was making the selection, 12,000 were starved to death, either by the cruelty of their keepers, or because they refused food; the multitudes causing it to be very scarce. In the course of the war 97,000 were taken prisoners, and in the siege 1,100,000 perished. For then the whole nation was shut up in prison, as it were by fate, and the city was besieged when full of inhabitants,” at the feast of the Passover; “so that the number of those whom the Romans slew publicly, or took prisoners, was greater than ever was destroyed,” at once, “by the fury of man, or by the wrath of God.” ib. Calmet. 17. Pompey had carried away many captives into Egypt about 120 years before. Pharao Sesac took and pillaged the city, under Roboam, 2 Chronicles 12:2.—That. Hebrew “by the way, concerning which I spoke to thee (that is, by returning back, through this wilderness, as thou formerly desiredst,) thou shalt see it no more.”—Set to sale, (venderis,) lit. “shall be sold.” After the Jews had been sold, their new masters could not find any to take them off their hands. Bible.—Buy you. Protestants, “there ye shall be sold … and no man shall buy you.” Can a man be sold without being bought? Whereas if the verb hithmaccartem was rendered, and ye shall offer yourselves to sale, the sense would be proper, and expressive of the most bitter sufferings. Kennicott.—Hegesippus (verse 47,) says, “there were many to be sold, but few purchasers; because the Romans disdained receiving the Jews as slaves, nor were there any Jews left to redeem their countrymen.”