⁶⁸ The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.^(A) There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

Crossing the Sea

¹⁷ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”^(A)

¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid.^(A) Stand firm and you will see^(B) the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see^(C) again.

³ Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?^(A) Our wives and children^(B) will be taken as plunder.^(C) Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?^(D)” ⁴ And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.^(E)”

¹⁵ then hear the word of the Lord,^(A) you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, ¹⁶ then the sword^(B) you fear^(C) will overtake you there, and the famine^(D) you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.^{(E) 17} Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague;^(F) not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’ ¹⁸ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath^(G) have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem,^(H) so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse^[a](I) and an object of horror,^(J) a curse^[b] and an object of reproach;^(K) you will never see this place again.’^(L)

¹⁹ “Remnant^(M) of Judah, the Lord has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’^(N) Be sure of this: I warn you today