Ezekiel 29:12
And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
Ezekiel 29:12 belongs to the prophecies against Egypt, standing among the prophecies of the nations in Ezekiel 25 to 31 concerning Ammon, Moab, Tyre, and Egypt. It was spoken six hundred years before Christ concerning Egypt while it was struggling against Babylon for supremacy in world empire. It declares the certain fate to come upon Pharaoh and his host.
The land of Egypt and her cities would be made desolate in the midst of desolate countries and wasted cities for forty years. The Egyptians would be scattered among the nations and dispersed through the countries. This judgment is connected with Egypt's claim that the Nile belonged to it and that it had made the river. Egypt had been a former oppressor of God's people and a symbol of black infidelity.
As part of this judgment Egypt, once a great empire, would be brought low and made the basest of the kingdoms. It was abased so that it would never rise again among the nations nor lift itself above the nations nor rule over the nations. The predictions of judgment were literally fulfilled and their fulfillment remains evident. The prophecies about Egypt were fulfilled in the nation's later subjection to successive foreign rulers, without specifying the details of the forty-year period.
The prophecy about Egypt is linked to England taking complete control of Egypt and Turkey's nominal sovereignty passing away.