The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
Deuteronomy 28:68
I’ve been slowly reading through Deuteronomy this year in Hebrew. I took more Hebrew classes this year and have spent most mornings translating a couple verses. On November 20, I opened up to 28:68, reading the opening words as “The Lord will cause you to return to Egypt…” Why am I mentioning this? Because that day I was scheduled to hop on a plane to return to Egypt. Eight years have elapsed since my previous time there. It was time to return.
The Bible seems to have a begrudging admiration for Egypt. On the one hand, the people of Israel were slaves there and were rescued out through Moses. This is remembered to today by the annual Passover festival. However, it also acknowledges the prosperity of the land, abundant in agriculture, which the people fondly remembered while wandering in the desert. Egypt is later mentioned with Solomon (1 Kings 3:1), Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:25-26), and Josiah (2 Kings 23:29). Some of the people fled to Egypt with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 42-43). Jesus’ parents fled to Egypt to escape Herod (Matthew 2:13-15). Egypt never seems to be far away from the minds of the Biblical authors.
Egypt continues to catch the attention of the modern world, too. Explorers and treasure hunters exploited the land in the nineteenth century, capturing amazing statues and artwork to bring back home. Modern archaeology continues to study this ancient land. Their building styles have been copied throughout the ages as well.
I hope you will enjoy reading about my trip. Our tour included the notable places of Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan, and Luxor. On the way home, we stopped in London for a couple days to see the British Museum. While I plan to devote a post (or more) to that stop, you’ll see pictures from there sprinkled throughout if it’s relevant to the topic at hand.
