Instructions of Amenemopet

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Instructions of Amenemopet (also called Instructions of Amenemope, Wisdom of Amenemopet) is an Egyptian papyrus containing 30 chapters of proverbs written about the time of the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Amenmesse (circa 1200 BC).

Contents

[edit] Authorship

Note that the name Amenemopet has many variations, and can include individuals such as:

[edit] Content

Instruction of Amenemope

Introduction: The beginning of the instruction about life...
Chapter 01: Give your years and hear what is said...
Chapter 02: Beware of stealing from a miserable man...
Chapter 03: Do not get into a quarrel with the argumentative man...
Chapter 04: The hot-headed man in the temple is like a tree grown indoors...
Chapter 05: Do not take by violence the shares of the temple...
Chapter 06: Do not displace the surveyor's marker on the boundaries of the arable land...
Chapter 07: Do not set your heart upon seeking riches...
Chapter 08: Set your good deeds throughout the world That you may greet everyone...
Chapter 09: Do not fraternize with the hot-tempered man, Nor approach him to converse...
Chapter 10: Do not address your intemperate friend in your unrighteousness...
Chapter 11: Do not covet the property of the dependent Nor hunger for his bread...
Chapter 12: Do not covet the property of an official...
Chapter 13: Do not lead a man astray <with> reed pen or papyrus document...
Chapter 14: Do not pay attention to a person, Nor exert yourself to seek out his hand...
Chapter 15: Do well, and you will attain influence...
Chapter 16: Do not unbalance the scale nor make the weights false...
Chapter 17: Beware of robbing the grain measure To falsify its fractions...
Chapter 18: Do not go to bed fearing tomorrow, For when day breaks what is tomorrow?
Chapter 19: Do not enter the council chamber in the presence of a magistrate And then falsify your speech...
Chapter 20: Do not corrupt the people of the law court, Nor put aside the just man...
Chapter 21: Do not say, I have found a strong protector And now I can challenge a man in my town...
Chapter 22: Do not castigate your companion in a dispute...
Chapter 23: Do not eat a meal in the presence of a magistrate...
Chapter 24: Do not listen to the accusation of an official indoors...
Chapter 25: Do not jeer at a blind man nor tease a dwarf...
Chapter 26: Do not stay in the tavern And join someone greater than you...
Chapter 27: Do not reproach someone older than you...
Chapter 28: Do not expose a widow if you have caught her in the fields...
Chapter 29: Do not turn people away from crossing the river When you have room in your ferryboat...
Chapter 30: Mark for your self these thirty chapters...

[edit] Impact

This document is unique in that it appears to have drawn upon the writing of portions of the Biblical Book of Proverbs, particularly chapters 22:17-24:22. It has more Semitisms in it than any other Egyptian literature. It also seems that it was used as a source for the later apocryphal book of Sirach, although this Jewish writing most likely would also have drawn upon the Hebrew original in the Book of Proverbs. Either way, this added historical support to the claims of early Israelite-Egyptian relationship.

[edit] Discovery

It is known to us mainly from the manuscript Papyrus 10474, which was acquired for the British Museum in 1888 by E. A. Wallis Budge. It was a scroll 12 feet long and 10 inches wide. It went unpublished until 1922, and was successively republished twice by 1924. Budge did not know of the value of the document at the time of its discovery, and his original notations merely listed it as:

A papyrus inscribed in hieratic, with a copy of the "Admonitions of Amen-em-apt" the son of Ka-nekht, on the obverse, and a complete Calendar of lucky and unlucky days on the reverse, B.C. 1100 (Brit. Mus., No. 10,474).

[edit] Verification

Fragments Listed by Date
Dates B.C. Dynasties Fragment Type Lines
1069 - 0712 21-22 Stockholm MM 18416 Papyrus 191-257
1069 - 0712 21-22 Louvre E. 17173 Tablet 034-037
1000 - 0900 late 21-early 22 Cairo 1840 Ostracon 047-066
0945 - 0712 22 Medinet Habu Graffito 001
0747 - 0525 25-26 Turin 6237 Tablet 470-500
0747 - 0525 25-26 Moscow I 1 d 324 Tablet 105-115
0747 - 0525 25-26 Turin Suppl. 4661 Tablet 001
0600 - 0500 late 26-early 27 B. M. 10474 Papyrus 001-551

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