The Mekhilta identifies three separate places in the Torah where God explicitly commanded Israel never to return to Egypt. Three warnings — not one, not two, but three — each in a different context, each reinforcing the same absolute prohibition.
The first comes at the Red Sea itself: "For as you see Egypt this day, you shall see them no more, forever" (Exodus 14:13). This was not merely a prediction about the drowning army. It was a divine decree: the relationship between Israel and Egypt was severed permanently. The nation that had enslaved them would never be their home again.
The second appears in Deuteronomy's laws of kingship: "You must not go back this way again" (Devarim 17:16). When Israel eventually established a monarchy, the king was specifically forbidden from acquiring horses from Egypt or sending people back there for any reason. The road to Egypt was closed — not just emotionally, but legally.
The third comes in the curses of Deuteronomy 28: "By the way which I told you, you shall not see it again" (Devarim 28:68). Even in the worst-case scenario — even if Israel sinned so grievously that God scattered them among the nations — they were never to seek refuge in Egypt. Egypt was permanently off-limits as a destination.
Three prohibitions in three different books, spoken at three different moments in Israel's history. The Mekhilta's compilation of these verses underscores the gravity of the ban. Egypt was not just a place Israel left. It was a place God sealed shut behind them — a door that, once closed at the Red Sea, was never to be opened again.