Deuteronomy 17:16

17:16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, ¹  for the Lord has said you must never again return that way.

Deuteronomy 28:68

28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Nehemiah 9:16-17

9:16 “But they – our ancestors ²  – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled ³  and did not obey your commandments. 9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. ⁴  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ⁵  You did not abandon them,

Luke 17:32

17:32 Remember Lot’s wife! ⁶ 

Acts 7:39

7:39 Our ⁷  ancestors ⁸  were unwilling to obey ⁹  him, but pushed him aside ¹⁰  and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,

Hebrews 10:38-39

10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I ¹¹  take no pleasure in him. ¹²  10:39 But we are not among those who shrink back and thus perish, but are among those who have faith and preserve their souls. ¹³ 

Hebrews 11:15

11:15 In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

Hebrews 11:2

11:2 For by it the people of old ¹⁴  received God’s commendation. ¹⁵ 

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

¹ tn Heb “in order to multiply horses.” The translation uses “do so” in place of “multiply horses” to avoid redundancy (cf. NAB, NIV).

² tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.

³ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).

⁴ tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX in reading בְּמִצְרָיִם (bÿmitsrayim, “in Egypt”; so also NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT) rather than the MT reading בְּמִרְיָם (bÿmiryam, “in their rebellion”).

⁵ tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.

⁶ sn An allusion to Gen 19:26. The warning about Lot’s wife is not to look back and long to be where one used to be. The world is being judged, and the person who delays or turns back will be destroyed.

⁷ tn Grk “whom our.” The continuation of the sentence as a relative clause is awkward in English, so a new sentence was started in the translation at this point.

⁸ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

⁹ sn To obey. Again the theme of the speech is noted. The nation disobeyed the way of God and opted for Egypt over the promised land.

¹⁰ sn Pushed him aside. This is the second time Moses is “pushed aside” in Stephen’s account (see v. 27).

¹¹ tn Grk “my soul.”

¹² sn A quotation from Hab 2:4.

¹³ tn Grk “not…of shrinking back to perdition but of faith to the preservation of the soul.”

¹⁴ tn Or “the elders,” “the ancients.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “were attested,” “received commendation”; and Heb 11:4-6 shows this to be from God.