Deuteronomy 28 and Black People: What the Curses Really Say
Dishon Francis | Yasharun the Scribe
If you've spent five minutes around Hebrew Israelites, somebody has opened a Bible to Deuteronomy 28. Ships. Slavery. Sons and daughters taken. A people scattered from one end of the earth to the other. A lot of us read that chapter for the first time and felt like we were reading our own family history.
I understand that feeling, because I hold a version of it myself. But a feeling is not a finding. So in this article I'm going to do what I wish more teachers did: read the chapter as a whole, test the most specific verses against every history that could fit them, and tell you plainly what holds and what doesn't.
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version, with the Name restored as Yahuah and the divine title rendered Elohim.
Why Deuteronomy 28 Matters to Hebrew Israelites
For many Hebrew Israelites, Deuteronomy 28 is the key that unlocks everything else. The argument goes like this: the chapter lists what would happen to Israel if they broke covenant, those things happened to Africans carried across the Atlantic, so those Africans must be Israel.
That's a serious argument, and it deserves a serious hearing. It also has a weak joint right in the middle, which is the word "so." Plenty of peoples have suffered. The question is whether this chapter describes our suffering specifically, or suffering in general.
Read the Whole Chapter First
Deuteronomy 28 has two halves. Verses 1 to 14 are blessings for obedience. Verses 15 to 68 are curses for disobedience, and they open like this:
"But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Yahuah thy Elohim, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee." (Deuteronomy 28:15, KJV)
Notice what kind of text this is. It's a covenant. It's conditional. And it isn't alone. Leviticus 26 gives a parallel list of blessings and curses, and Deuteronomy keeps going after chapter 28. Chapters 29 and 30 promise that a scattered people who remember and return will be gathered again. If you stop reading at verse 68, you've stopped in the middle of a sentence.
Shared Curses and Specific Curses
Here's the most important idea in this whole article. Most of the curses in verses 15 to 68 are things that happen to every conquered people in history: disease, drought, crop failure, defeat in war, siege and famine. My Encyclopedia puts it this way: a curse that fits everyone picks out no one (pages 90 to 91).
That doesn't make those verses meaningless. It means they can't be used as a fingerprint. If you want to know which history a curse points to, you have to look at the specific ones, the details that could only fit a few candidates. There are four worth testing: the ships of verse 68, the sign of verse 46, the strange tongue of verse 49 and the lost children of verse 32.
Deuteronomy 28:68: Ships, Egypt and "No Man Shall Buy You"
This is the verse everybody quotes, and for good reason:
"And Yahuah shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you." (Deuteronomy 28:68, KJV)
Two things before we test it. First, "by the way whereof I spake unto thee" points back to Deuteronomy 17:16, where Yahuah said Israel should "return no more that way." So the curse is the Exodus in reverse: back into Egypt, back into bondage. Second, the Hebrew verb behind "ye shall be sold" is vehitmakartem, a form that usually carries a reflexive sense. That's why the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 translation reads "ye shall sell yourselves," and why the verse ends with no buyer. People so desperate they offer themselves and nobody takes them (page 92).
Now test the three strongest candidates side by side, the way the Encyclopedia does (page 93).
| Detail in 28:68 | Rome, AD 70 | Rome, AD 135 | The Atlantic trade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | Yes. Josephus says captives over seventeen were sent to the works in Egypt (Wars 6.418). | Yes, in later sources. | As a picture of bondage, not the place. |
| Ships | Not stated. | Stated, in later sources. | Yes. |
| Sold as slaves | Yes. | Yes. | Yes. |
| "No man shall buy you" | Yes. So many were sold that buyers were few (Wars 6.384). | Yes. Prices collapsed. | No. Buyers were many. |
The Encyclopedia's verdict is that 28:68 "fits Rome closely and the Atlantic partly." Two of the four details strain for the Atlantic reading, and a reading that needs this verse has to explain that bottom row. On the book's ledger, "28:68 fits Rome most closely" is graded Argued (page 99).
That's not the end of the Atlantic reading, though. A covenant curse is not a one-time event. The Bible itself shows patterns repeating. So the honest statement is this: Rome is the closest fit to the verse's details, and the Atlantic trade fits part of it. Both can be true.
Does "A Sign and a Wonder" Mean Black Skin?
You'll hear it taught that the "sign" in this chapter is dark skin:
"And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever." (Deuteronomy 28:46, KJV)
Read it slowly. "They" are the curses. The sign is the curses themselves, the suffering that would make Israel a warning to the nations. The chapter doesn't mention skin colour one time (pages 96 to 97).
The verse usually paired with it is Lamentations 5:10: "Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine." That's a description of starvation after Jerusalem fell, skin darkened by hunger. It isn't a statement about ethnicity. My book lists "Deuteronomy's sign means skin" among the arguments that fail (page 146). I'd rather lose that argument honestly than win it with a verse that doesn't say it.
"A Nation Whose Tongue Thou Shalt Not Understand"
"Yahuah shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand." (Deuteronomy 28:49, KJV)
This one feels close to home, because our ancestors lost their languages in slavery. But Scripture already applies this verse. Jeremiah uses the same words for Babylon: "a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say" (Jeremiah 5:15, KJV). Assyria, Babylon, Rome and the European traders all fit it. A verse that fits every candidate can't choose between them (pages 94 to 95).
"Thy Sons and Thy Daughters Shall Be Given unto Another People"
"Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long." (Deuteronomy 28:32, KJV)
Here's a piece of history a lot of people have never heard. In 1493, the king of Portugal took Jewish children from their parents and shipped them to São Tomé, an island off the coast of Central Africa. The chronicler Samuel Usque, writing in 1553, put the number at about two thousand. By around 1506, reports say about six hundred were still alive (pages 98, 120 to 121).
That's a documented case of Jewish children, forcibly baptised, carried into the Atlantic world by the same empire that built the slave trade. The island became a sugar colony and a hub of the early slave trade, and the survivors' descendants became part of its Creole population. The record doesn't show that they kept a Jewish identity, and it doesn't prove that later Africans descend from them. My book calls it "hundreds of children, not a people": true, and small. It does show the pattern of verse 32 landing on African soil, and it shows why the Encyclopedia calls the curses "a recurring pattern, not a single fulfilment."
What I Believe About Deuteronomy 28
So where does that leave me? I believe some of the descendants of the transatlantic slave trade are Israelites, and I believe Deuteronomy 28 describes a pattern that correlates with what happened to our people. I also believe Rome fulfilled this chapter first and most exactly.
Those two beliefs aren't in conflict. The curses were written for Israel wherever Israel went. If Israelites were among the people carried across the Atlantic, the chapter would describe them too. What the chapter can't do by itself is prove who was on those ships. That question needs history and evidence, not just a match between a verse and a feeling. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV).
The Chapter Doesn't End in Chains
Here's what I want you to take with you. The curses are not the last word. Two chapters later, Yahuah says this:
"That then Yahuah thy Elohim will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither Yahuah thy Elohim hath scattered thee." (Deuteronomy 30:3, KJV)
The way out is the way back: remembering, returning and keeping His commandments. That's the promise of Deuteronomy 7:9, which describes "the faithful Elohim, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." Our Ketef Hinnom KH1 necklace carries that covenant line on the front and the priestly blessing on the back, engraved in Paleo Hebrew, the script ancient Israelites wrote in.
If you want every one of these verses tested against every candidate history, with sources on the page and a grade on every claim, that's what I built The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Israelite History to do. It isn't in the store yet. The best way to hear from us when it's released is to sign up for our free Fall Feasts Starter. And if you're just starting out, begin with Who Are the Hebrew Israelites? or read this chapter together at your next family Bible study night.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Deuteronomy 28 say?
Deuteronomy 28 lists blessings for obeying the covenant (verses 1 to 14) and curses for breaking it (verses 15 to 68). It is part of a longer passage, and chapters 29 and 30 promise that a scattered people who return will be gathered again.
What does Deuteronomy 28:68 mean?
It describes Israel being taken back to Egypt by ships and offered for sale as slaves with no buyer, which reverses the Exodus. The details fit Rome's sale of Judean captives after AD 70 and AD 135 most closely, and fit the Atlantic slave trade in part.
Is Deuteronomy 28 about Black people?
Many Hebrew Israelites read it that way. The chapter names no ethnicity. Its general curses fit many peoples, and its most specific verse fits Rome most closely. Whether it also describes Israelites in the Atlantic trade depends on history and evidence, not the text alone.
Does the "sign" in Deuteronomy 28:46 mean dark skin?
No. The sign is the curses themselves, and the chapter never mentions skin colour. Lamentations 5:10 describes skin darkened by famine, not ethnicity.
Did the curses of Deuteronomy 28 happen to the Jews under Rome?
Yes, in large part. Josephus describes captives sent to Egypt and markets so flooded that buyers were few. A covenant curse can repeat, so Rome being a fulfillment does not rule out later ones.
How is Deuteronomy 28 different from Leviticus 26?
They are parallel covenant passages. Both list blessings and curses, both describe scattering among the nations, and both end with a promise that Yahuah remembers His covenant when the people return.
Sources
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Israelite History, Yah's Covenant Inc.: pages 90 to 99, 120 to 121, 146 to 147.
- Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 6.384 and 6.418 (Whiston translation). For AD 135: Jerome and the Chronicon Paschale, as cited in the Encyclopedia, page 93.
- Samuel Usque, Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel, 1553.
- The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, Deuteronomy 28:68.
A curse describes where we've been. A covenant describes where we can go.
Called, Chosen, Faithful.