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.