Yet thus saith the Lord God; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered: and I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord God (verses 13-16). The future of Egypt after its desolation of forty years is revealed in this paragraph. Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt follows in the next paragraph. The forty years of desolation, during which the Egyptians were dispersed in different countries are difficult to locate historically. Some apply them altogether to the future. B. W. Newton, in his "Babylon and Egypt," claims that all this will be accomplished in the future. We quote his words: "It will be fearfully smitten; and for forty years after the Millennium has commenced, it will be utterly desolate. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years (Ezekiel xxix:11). But, finally, it shall be revived, and together with Israel and Assyria shall receive that wondrous blessing which the concluding verses of the nineteenth of Isaiah describe."[21] That Egypt will have a future of blessing no careful student of the prophetic Word will deny. Isaiah xix shows its future history, both in judgment and in blessing. Yet the prediction of Ezekiel that Egypt after the forty years of desolation should be the basest of all kingdoms and shall have no more rule, but be in a diminished condition, excludes the application of this prophecy to the coming Millennium. Egypt had such a period of forty years' devastation, though the exact history of it may not be known to us. Prophecy is not learned by historical events, but history is revealed in prophecy. We believe prophecies, not because history has measured up to them, but we believe them because they are the inerrant Word of God. After Egypt's sorrowful forty years' experience and dispersion, this proud country went into a steady decline, and the Word of God was literally fulfilled when it became the basest of kingdoms, so that Israel put confidence no longer in Egypt. After Nebuchadnezzar's raid, Egypt declined and sank lower still under the Persians and the Ptolemies, until she became the granary of Rome. And this degradation has continued throughout the centuries of this age so that Egypt is literally the basest of the kingdoms.[22] That she will play her part in the future at the close of our age we learn from Daniel's prophecy (Dan. xi:36-45).