Instruction of Merikare - Instruction for King Merikare

Instruction for King Merikare

[The beginning of the teaching made by the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khety, for his son Merikare.]

[The opening portion is extensively damaged.]

The heated man stirs up the townspeople and divides the young into factions. When you find that citizens have joined themselves to him, expose him before the council and put down his rebellion. A loud-tongued man is a danger to the city. Restrain the crowd and quench its heat.

[Text missing]

May you be vindicated before the god, so that even in your absence a man may say that you punish according to the offence. A good disposition is a man’s heaven, but the curse of the enraged is painful. If you are skilled in speech, you will prevail. The tongue is a king’s weapon; words are stronger than battle, and the skilful speaker is not overcome.

[Line damaged] The wise man is a storehouse for the nobles. Those who know his understanding do not attack him, and no wrongdoing arises near him. Justice comes to him refined, shaped by the sayings of the ancestors.

Imitate your fathers and those who came before you. Their words endure in writings. Open them, read them, and take their knowledge for yourself. The one who is taught becomes skilful. Do not act wickedly; kindness is good. Cause your memorial to endure through the love people bear for you.

Increase the people and make the town your friend. The god will be praised for what you give. [Line damaged] They will praise your goodness and pray for your health.

Honour the great ones and sustain your people. Strengthen your boundaries and your frontier guards. It is good to labour for what is to come. The life of the farsighted is respected, but the one who trusts blindly fails. Draw people to yourself by the goodness of your character.

Miserable is the man who desires his neighbour’s land; foolish is the one who covets another’s possessions. Life upon earth passes quickly. Happy is the one whose name is remembered. A million men cannot preserve the Lord of the Two Lands. Is there anyone who lives forever? The one who goes to Osiris passes away, just as the self-indulgent man departs.

Raise up your officials so that they act according to your laws. A man who possesses wealth in his house will not be partial, for he is rich and lacks nothing. The poor man does not always speak justly; the one who says, ‘I wish I possessed it,’ leans toward the man who pays him.

Great is the ruler whose great men are great. Strong is the king who has counsellors. Rich is the one who is rich in nobles. Speak truth within your house, so that the officials of the land may respect you. Uprightness belongs to the lord; fear of the front of the house reaches even to its rear.

Do justice, and you will endure upon earth. Calm the one who weeps. Do not oppress the widow. Do not drive a man from the property of his father. Do not diminish the nobles in their possessions.

Beware of punishing without cause. Do not kill; it does not profit you. Punish by beating and confinement, and the land will be ordered—except in the case of the rebel whose plot has been uncovered, for the god knows those who plan treachery, and the god strikes rebels in blood.

[Line damaged] Do not kill a man whose virtues you know, with whom you once recited the writings, who was raised [line damaged] before the god and walked freely in the secret place.

The ba goes to the place it knows and does not miss the road it followed before. No magic can hold it back. It comes to those who pour water for it.

The tribunal that judges the afflicted is not lenient on the day when the miserable are judged, in the hour when its task is done. Painful is the case in which the accuser knows the truth. Do not trust in the length of years: they regard a lifetime as an hour. When a man remains after death, his deeds are placed beside him as treasure, and existence there is forever.

A fool is the one who does what they condemn. The man who reaches them without having done wrong will exist there like a god, walking freely like the lords of eternity.

Raise your young men, and the residence will love you. Increase your subjects with recruits. See, your city is full of new growth. For twenty years the young follow their desires; then the recruits go forth, and the veterans return to their children. [Text damaged] I raised troops from among them when I came to the throne.

Advance your officials and promote your soldiers. Enrich the young men who follow you. Supply them with goods, grant them fields, and reward them with cattle.

[Text missing]

Do not favour the wellborn over the common man. Choose a man because of his ability, and every craft will be carried out. Guard your borders and make your fortresses secure. Troops are useful to their lord.

Make your monuments worthy of the god, for this keeps alive the name of the one who made them. A man should do what benefits his ba. During the monthly service wear the white sandals. Visit the temple and observe the mysteries. Enter the sanctuary and eat bread in the god’s house. Pour libations, multiply the loaves, and make the daily offerings abundant. It is profitable for the one who does this.

Endow your monuments according to your means. Even one day contributes to eternity; a single hour adds to the future. The god recognises the one who works for him.

[Several obscure and damaged lines.]

Troop fought against troop, as the ancestors had foretold. Egypt fought within the burial ground, destroying tombs in vengeance. As I acted, so it came to pass, as happens to one who strays from the god’s path.

Do not act wickedly toward the Southland. You know what the residence foretold concerning it. As this happened, so another thing may happen. [Text damaged] I attacked This as far as its southern boundary at Taut and overwhelmed it like a flood. King Meriyebre, justified, had not done this. Show mercy because of it. [Text missing] Renew the treaties. No river permits itself to remain hidden. It is good to labour for the future.

[Text missing]

You stand well with the Southland. They come to you bearing tribute and gifts. I acted as the ancestors acted: when a man had no grain to give, I treated him kindly because they were humble before me. Be content with your bread and beer, and granite will come to you without hindrance.

Do not strip the monument of another man; quarry fresh stone at Tura. Do not build your tomb from ruins, using what was made before as material for what is to be made now.

See, the king is lord of joy. You may rest and sleep in strength. Follow your heart because of what I have accomplished, for there is no enemy within your borders.

I arose as lord of the city while my heart was troubled because of the Northland. From Hetshenu to Sembaqa, and southward to the Two-Fish Channel, I pacified the entire west as far as the shore of the sea. It pays taxes and brings cedar; juniper wood is seen among the things delivered to us.

The east abounds in bowmen. [Line damaged] The inner islands have been driven back, and every man within them [line damaged]. The temples say, ‘You are greater than I.’

The land they had ravaged has been divided into nomes. Great towns of every kind are in it. What had been ruled by one man is now in the hands of ten. Officials have been appointed and tax rolls drawn up. When free men are granted land, they labour for you as one company. No rebel will rise among them, and Hapy will not fail to come.

The revenues of the Northland are in your hand, for the mooring-post is fixed in the district I established in the east, from Hebenu to the Ways of Horus. It is settled with towns and filled with people, the best in all the land, to repel attacks against them. May I see a courageous man who will imitate this and add to what I have done. A worthless heir would bring me shame.

This must be said concerning the bowman: behold, the Asiatic is miserable because of the land in which he lives—short of water, bare of trees, with many difficult roads because of the mountains. He does not dwell in one place. Food drives his feet onward. He has fought since the time of Horus, neither conquering nor being conquered. He does not announce the day of battle but darts about like a thief among a company.

Yet, as I live and shall become what I am to become, when the bowmen were like a sealed wall, I broke through their fortresses. I caused Lower Egypt to attack them. I captured their people and seized their cattle, until the Asiatics came to abhor Egypt.

Do not trouble yourself over him. The Asiatic is like a crocodile upon its bank: it snatches from a lonely road but cannot seize from a populous town.

Medenyt has been restored to its nome, and one side of it is irrigated as far as Kem-Wer. It is a defence against the bowmen. Its walls are prepared for war and its soldiers are numerous. Its dependants know how to carry weapons, besides the free men who live within it.

The region of Memphis contains ten thousand men, free citizens who are not taxed. Officials have been there since the time when it was the residence. The boundaries are firm and the garrisons are brave. Many northerners irrigate it as far as the Northland and pay grain dues as free men do. Behold, it is the gateway of the Northland; together they form a dyke as far as Hnes. Many citizens are a support to the heart. Beware of being surrounded by the servants of an enemy. Caution lengthens life.

If your southern border is attacked, the bowmen will gird themselves. Build settlements in the Northland. A man’s name is not diminished by his works, and an inhabited town is not harmed. Build [text missing]. The enemy loves destruction and misery.

King Khety, justified, set this down as instruction: the one who remains silent before violence diminishes the offerings. The god will attack the rebel for the sake of the temple. He will be overcome by what he has done, filled with what he intended to gain, and without favour on the day of distress.

Provide the offerings and revere the god. Do not say, ‘It is a burden,’ and do not let your hands grow slack. The one who opposes you attacks heaven. A monument endures for a hundred years. If the enemy understood, he would not attack it. There is no one who has no enemy.

The Lord of the Two Shores is one who knows. A king surrounded by courtiers is not ignorant. He came from the womb as one already wise; from a million men the god singled him out.

Kingship is a good office, yet it has no son and no brother to preserve its memorial. One man provides for another. A man acts for the one who came before him, so that what he has done may be preserved by his successor.

Behold, a shameful deed happened in my time: the nome of This was ravaged. Though it happened through my action, I learned of it only after it was done. There was repayment for what I had done. It is evil to destroy, useless to restore what one has damaged or rebuild what one has demolished.

Beware of this. A blow is repaid by a blow, and every act has its answer. Though generation follows generation, the god who knows character remains hidden. No one can oppose the Lord of the Hand; he reaches everything the eyes can see.

Revere the god upon his road, in images made of costly stone and fashioned from bronze. As one watercourse replaces another, no river allows itself to be concealed; it breaks through the channel in which it was hidden.

So also the ba goes to the place it knows and does not stray from its former path. Make worthy your house in the west and establish your station in the burial ground by being upright and doing justice, on which the hearts of men depend. The loaf of the upright is better than the ox of the evildoer.

Work for the god, and he will work for you—with offerings that make the altar flourish and with carvings that proclaim your name. The god remembers the one who works for him.

Humanity is well tended, the cattle of the god. He made heaven and earth for their sake. He subdued the water-monster. He made breath for their nostrils so that they might live. They are his images, who came forth from his body. He shines in heaven for their sake.

He made plants and cattle for them, birds and fish to feed them. He slew his enemies and reduced his own children when they planned rebellion. He makes daylight for their sake and sails by in order to see them. He has built his shrine around them, and when they weep, he hears.

He made rulers for them while they were still in the egg, leaders to raise the back of the weak. He made magic for them as a weapon to ward off the blow of events, guarding them by day and by night. He has slain the traitors among them, as a man beats his son for the sake of his brother, for the god knows every name.

Do not neglect my speech, which sets down all the laws of kingship and instructs you so that you may rule the land. May you come to me with no one accusing you.

Do not kill one who is near you, whom you have favoured; the god knows him. He is among the fortunate upon earth. Divine are those who follow the king.

Make yourself loved by everyone, for a good character is remembered after a man’s time has passed. May those who come afterward in the House of Khety call you, ‘The one who ended the time of trouble,’ when they consider what has happened today.

Behold, I have told you the best of my thoughts. Act according to what has been set before you.

[The manuscript closes with a scribal colophon, partly damaged.]