Deuteronomy 28 and a Plea to Religious Leaders
It was either my sophomore or junior year of college; I can’t quite remember when, but I do remember where. I was in the university library, most likely avoiding schoolwork, but that particular night, I found myself reading the book of Deuteronomy. As I combed through the scriptures, I found myself more and more drawn in as I was reading things I had never seen before, though I had read that particular book before. I’m sure many Bible scholars can attest to this. Some of the old saints used to say something along the lines of “when you read the Word, the Word is reading you.” I was in a place in my life where I was desperate to have a better understanding of a myriad of things; scripture being first and foremost.
I came to the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy—a chapter I thought I was very familiar with—and came across something that gave me great pause. I literally stood straight up out of my chair. Deuteronomy 28 is where Moses lists G-d’s blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience. Many in the Christian faith, particularly in many predominantly Black denominations, are very familiar with the blessing verses. This is in large part due to gospel music stalwart Fred Hammond’s most famous song, Blessed. I was somewhat familiar with the rest of the chapter as well, or so I thought.
In the long list of curses that Moses relays to the children of Israel should they fall into idolatry, one verse jumped out at me in particular; something I had never seen before. The last five verses of Deuteronomy chapter 28 reads as follows:
“And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see. And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
This was the passage that made me get up from my seat. I read it again and again, then went over to a good friend who was actually doing schoolwork and interrupted her to tell her what I found. Then I read it again. After reading the passage for what was probably the thirtieth time, I sat and pondered. The first thing I thought of was geography. In my mind, one does not need to get on a ship to travel from Canaan back to Egypt. So immediately I concluded that Egypt was merely a metaphor for slavery, and the scripture was foreshadowing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; a dark period in world history between the 16th and 19th centuries where some 12 million African men, women, and children were shipped from Africa to the Americas. I thought that surely this could not be a coincidence that the Bible mentions ships to Egypt and slavery, and Black Africans were victims of the largest trafficking of human beings in history. “This has to mean something.” I kept saying to myself. “This must mean we’re Jews too.”
What 20-year-old me was processing is not unlike what a lot of young Black Christians have gone through or are going through currently. I did not arrive at the conclusion that some of the more radical sects of the Black Hebrew Israelites, or other radical Christians have come to—that Black Americans are the ‘real Jews’ and Ashkenazis are ‘imposters’—and there is a reason for that. I would like to delve a little deeper into this, and one more chapter in Deuteronomy.
If one had to choose a lynchpin set of verses that are used to argue Jews being one skin tone, Deuteronomy 28:64-68 is a very viable candidate. The only problem is the argument is disproven, or at the very least, severely weakened by the same scriptures. First off, being transported back to Egypt as slaves can very much be taken literally, as the Romans, after defeating the Jews and destroying the Temple in 70 AD, sold some of the Jews into slavery throughout the Roman Empire. Some of this transporting of Judean slaves required ships. The Romans were no stranger to slavery, whether those slaves are Jews or not, but when one is trying to interpret scripture, especially ancient prophecy, one must strive to know as much of the events following as possible.
The observation made in the previous paragraph is not to discount the existence of Black American Jews; nor is it to discount that the aforementioned Deuteronomy passage could not also be a metaphor for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It is to simply say that if we are going to stand on the Holy Text, let’s look at all of what it says; not just the parts that resonate with us. For instance, in the last verse of Deuteronomy 28, in regard to Egypt, it says:
“…you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
What does that mean? That does not line up with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in any way. African slaves were definitely bought and sold. There were lots of offering of slaves, and there were many buyers. In fact, slavery was (and still is) the most lucrative business to get involved in. What does that piece of scripture mean? Well, we know that in different periods of ancient Israel’s history, times would be so dire, that Jews would sell themselves, or their children into slavery as a way of paying off massive debts or exorbitant taxes. It is not unprecedented that Jews, or any culture back then, would perform such a desperate act. Some of the Jewish sages teach that Egypt, Israel’s former taskmasters, would not accept Israel’s bid to sell herself back to Egypt as slaves.
I’m sure there are many more interpretations of just one verse in the entire chapter of Deuteronomy, and more than one of them could be absolutely correct. So again, this is not to discount the existence of Black Jews, of which there are many. This is to discount the notion that somehow all Black Americans are the only Jews. Scripture does not agree with this either. Let’s just take a look at a few scriptures:
Deuteronomy 30:1-5
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
Isaiah 11:11-12
In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
He will raise a signal for the nations
and will assemble the banished of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
Jeremiah 16:14
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
Acts 2:1-5
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
The Torah, the prophets, and the Christian texts make mention of the Jewish diaspora. G-d says that one day, He will gather His people back to the land from where he scattered them. That definitely can include at least some Black American descendants of slavery, but not to the exclusion of every other ethnic group, especially European Jews. If Deuteronomy 28 can be used as an argument that Black Africans were slaves because we’re Jews—if one wants to solely point to scripture and correlate that to our people’s suffering—the same case can be made for Jews in Europe who were enslaved, burned, buried alive, and gassed in the Shoah (Holocaust). The same case can be made for the current genocide of the Igbo in Nigeria. The same case can be made for the Ethiopian Jews who were beaten, raped, and brutally murdered at the hands of Christians and Muslims both in Ethiopia and in Sudan. The same case can be made for the Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 for refusing to convert to Catholicism. Such a myopic view of our own perspective and skin color will rob us of a broader understanding.
What ultimately kept me from falling into the color-consumed rabbit hole was my father. To end this chapter of my story, I called my dad and told him of what I found while studying the scriptures. I told him about Slave ships and Egypt, prophecy and parallels. He listened patiently and then engaged in a discussion with me about some of the things written in this article. Others he either spoke to me about at another time, or I came across and brought to him for more discussion. My father happens to be a pastor, so studying the Word was a huge part of his job. But this makes a strong case for pastors and rabbis in our society who study, wrestle with and dig deep to understand the scriptures. It is a heavy burden, but it must be done. A lot of the foolishness that has been taking place in regard to this very topic is due to a vacuum left by pastors who either do not know or will not address the more difficult parts of the Bible.
And lastly, for just 10 seconds, even if we were to give any credence to the concept of monochromatic Judaism, and that only Black Americans are the ‘real Jews,’ that would mean that we are in exile and under judgment for the sins of our fathers; in which case, we need not concern ourselves with who is ‘stealing our heritage.’ Rather, focus on how we and our families can be restored, lest He confines us to exile forever.
Focusing on our families is something we all can do — Jew and Gentile alike.