Deuteronomy 4:27

4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you ¹  among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

Deuteronomy 28:48

28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ²  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ³  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.

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.”

Isaiah 27:13

27:13 At that time ⁴  a large ⁵  trumpet will be blown, and the ones lost ⁶  in the land of Assyria will come, as well as the refugees in ⁷  the land of Egypt. They will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 42:17-18

42:17 All the people who are determined to go and settle in Egypt will die from war, starvation, or disease. No one will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’ 42:18 For ⁹  the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁰  says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. ¹¹  You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹²  You will never see this place again.’ ¹³ 

Jeremiah 42:22

42:22 So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

Jeremiah 44:12-14

44:12 I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ¹⁴  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ¹⁵  or perish from starvation. People of every class ¹⁶  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹⁷  44:13 I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt with war, starvation, and disease just as I punished Jerusalem. 44:14 None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah. Though they long to return and live there, none of them shall return except a few fugitives.’” ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 44:27-28

44:27 I will indeed ¹⁹  see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them. ²⁰  All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left. 44:28 Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed! ²¹  Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true, ²²  mine or theirs.’

¹ tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”

² tn Heb “lack of everything.”

³ tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

⁴ tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

⁵ tn Traditionally, “great” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “loud.”

⁶ tn Or “the ones perishing.”

⁷ tn Or “the ones driven into.”

⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tn Or “Indeed.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.

¹¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹² tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

¹³ tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.

¹⁴ tn Heb “they set their face to go.” Compare 44:11 and 42:14 and see the translator’s note at 42:15.

¹⁵ tn Heb “fall by the sword.”

¹⁶ tn Or “All of them without distinction,” or “All of them from the least important to the most important”; Heb “From the least to the greatest.” See the translator’s note on 42:1 for the meaning of this idiom.

¹⁷ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

¹⁸ tn Heb “There shall not be an escapee or a survivor to the remnant of Judah who came to sojourn there in the land of Egypt even to return to the land of Judah which they are lifting up their souls [= “longing/desiring” (BDB 672 s.v. נָשָׂא Piel.2)] to return to live there; for none shall return except fugitives.” The long, complex Hebrew original has been broken up and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style. Another possible structure would be “None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive. None of them will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah where they long to return to live. Indeed (emphatic use of כִּי [ki]; cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e) none of them shall return except a few fugitives.” This verse is a good example of rhetorical hyperbole where a universal negative does not apply to absolutely all the particulars. Though the Lord denies at the outset that any will escape or survive the punishment of vv. 12-13 to return to Judah, he says at the end that a few fugitives will return (the two words for fugitive are from the same root and mean the same thing). (E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 618-19, might classify this as a synecdoche of genus where a universal negative does not deny particularity.) That this last statement is not a gloss or an afterthought is supported by what is said later in v. 28.

¹⁹ tn Heb “Behold I.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6. Here it announces the reality of a fact.

²⁰ tn Heb “Behold, I am watching over them for evil/disaster/harm not for good/prosperity/ blessing.” See a parallel usage in 31:28.

²¹ tn Heb “The survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number [more literally, “men of number”; for the idiom see BDB 709 s.v. מִסְפָּר 1.a].” The term “survivors of the sword” may be intended to represent both those who survive death in war or death by starvation or disease, a synecdoche of species for all three genera.

²² tn Heb “will stand,” i.e., in the sense of being fulfilled, proving to be true, or succeeding (see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g).