Wider Ancient Witness Archive · 4.1 Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom Background Archive
Layer 4 — Wider Archive
The Loyalist Instruction
This text is included as a comparative, historical, philosophical, ritual, textual, or fragmentary witness. It is not presented as part of the Restored Bible.
The Loyalist Instruction
[An Egyptian instruction urging loyalty to the king and care for those beneath one; preserved with some damage.]
Worship the king within your bodies; set his majesty in your hearts. He is Authority who gives knowledge; the one he favors will be a possessor of honor. He is light for the whole land, brighter than the sun’s disk; he makes the land green more than a great flood. He gives breath to the one who follows him, and food to the one who serves him.
Fight for his name; be pure for his life; and you will be free of any taint. The one whom the king loves will be a blessed spirit; there is no tomb for the one who rebels against his majesty, and his body is thrown into the water. Do these things, and your bodies will be sound, and you will find it good forever.
And care for those who depend on you, as is fitting. Do not be harsh to the humble; feed your laborers, that they may work for you. Fill the hand of the one who has nothing; do not let a man be wretched among your people, and they will be a wall around you in the day of trouble. A troop is known by its keeper; the herd returns to the one who tends it. [Line damaged]
[Fragment breaks here]