Matthew Poole and continuators on Deuteronomy 28:68

68 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 bond-men, and bond-women, and no man shall buy you .

Whence he hath now so gloriously delivered thee, as repenting of all his kindness to thee, and resolved to undo what he hath done for thee. And the remembrance of what they endured in Egypt could not but make the thoughts of returning thither again very terrible to them.

Which was literally fulfilled under Titus, when multitudes of them were carryed thither in Ships, and sold there for Slaves, as Iosephus relates. And this expression seems to mind them of that time when they went over the Sea without ships, God miraculously drying up the Sea before them, &c. which now they would have occasion sadly to remember.

Or, to the way: the Hebrew B[illegible: 1+ letters]th here signifying to, as it doth Gen. 11. 4. Levit. 16. 22. Psal. 19. 5. and 91. 12. Isa. 9. 8. And the way seems hot to be meant here of the usual road-way from Canaan to Egypt, which was wholly by land, but to be put for the end of the way or journey, even the land of Egypt, for to this, and not to the road-way between Canaan and Egypt, agree the words here following, whereof I spake unto thee, thou shalt see it, (i. e. Egypt) no more again. And so that way is put for to that land in a place parallel to this, where the very same words are used, Deut. 17. 16. to which this place palpably alludes.

Either because the number of you captives shall be so great, that the market shall be glutted with you; or because you shall be so loathsome and contemptible that men shall not be willing to have you for slaves. And this was the condition of the Iews after the destruction of Ierusalem, as Iosephus the Iew hath left upon record.

Marginal references: Jer. 44. [illegible: 1+ letters], Hos. 8. 13. and c. 3[illegible: 1+ letters]; Chap. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. 16.