11 No foot, animal or human, will walk across it, and it won’t be inhabited for forty years.
12 I will make the land of Egypt the most desolate of wastelands and its cities the most devastated of ruined cities. It will be a wasteland for forty years, and the Egyptians will be scattered among the nations and dispersed throughout the lands.
13 The Lord God proclaims: At the end of forty years, I will gather the Egyptians from among the nations where they are scattered.
14 I will improve their circumstances and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin. Egypt will be a lowly kingdom there.
15 Out of all the kingdoms, it will be the lowliest. It will never again exalt itself over the nations, and I will make it small to keep it from ruling the nations.
16 The house of Israel will never again bring guilt on itself by faithlessly turning to Egypt for help, for they will know that I am the Lord God.
17 In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the Lord’s word came to me: