of Egypt, unto all that trust on him" (2 Kings xviii:21). And so it was. Egypt gave no help to Israel and only wounded them grievously as a staff which breaks under the weight of him who leaneth upon it--breaks and pierces the hand. Whenever God's people turn to Egypt (the type of the world) for help and form ungodly alliances they do so to their own hurt and shame. [20] The crocodile was often used on Egyptian seal-rings as well as on Roman coins, which pictured Egypt as a monster crocodile. Then follows the explanation of the allegory and, once more, the reason of the coming desolation of Egypt is stated, because the proud King had said, "The river is mine, and I have made it." The entire land of Egypt was to be wasted from one end to the other. It was to become desolate and for the period of forty years it was not to be inhabited. "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" (verse 12). But have these predictions been fulfilled? Did Egypt pass through a period of forty years' desolation and did a restoration take place after the forty years? Critics claim that these predictions were never literally fulfilled and that Nebuchadnezzar did not invade Egypt during the reign of Hophra. They point to the historical evidence that Amasis followed Hophra as King of Egypt, and under his reign Egypt was in a very flourishing condition. The historian, Herodotus, gives this information and it is fully confirmed by Egyptian records on monuments. But did the prophet Ezekiel predict that Egypt should be invaded by Nebuchadnezzar during the reign of Pharaoh-Hophra? He predicts that Nebuchadnezzar should conquer Egypt, but the critics have made a serious blunder by overlooking the date of the prophecy in which Nebuchadnezzar's invasion is announced. The chapter under our consideration begins with a definite date. It was in the tenth year when he received the message concerning Hophra; but it was seventeen years later when Nebuchadnezzar's invasion was predicted, in the twenty-seventh year (verse 17). Hophra's doom and the desolation of Egypt was first announced, but the fulfillment came years later. Ezekiel does not state that Hophra should be slain by Nebuchadnezzar, nor does Jeremiah predict this (Jeremiah xliv:30). Hophra was dethroned by Amasis and later slain. II. Egypt's Restoration and Future as a Kingdom.