The Instruction of Amenemope

(1.1) Here begins the teaching of light, the guide to life:(1.2) fresh instructions, told to make hearts flourish,(1.3) come down from the counsels of the forebears,(1.4) the worthies, the companions of old.(1.5) Known to the craftsman, handed on to the king,(1.6) that one might live by them in the days that followed;(1.7) so set your heart on them, that your name may stand(1.8) and your good repute be rooted in the earth.(1.9) They are given to the son from the loving heart,(1.10) for his sight, his hearing, his keeping safe.(1.11) Do not speak more than is asked of you,(1.12) so that no man's heart may turn against you.(1.13) Give your thought to the ways of the land,(1.14) and to what has been before: that is what makes wisdom.(1.15) * See the excellent son, the gift of God,(1.16) the heir, born of a loving heart.(1.17) His body flourishes; his life is long;(1.18) and the man who hears is honored among men.

(2.1) It was the king who set him over the council,(2.2) and he speaks with the weight of the ancestors,(2.3) for a son should serve his father(2.4) and hand on what his father taught him.(2.5) * See the excellent son, the gift of God,(2.6) set first among the council of the land.(2.7) Speak to him of the quiet of the heart;(2.8) he will answer with the word that comes from heaven.(2.9) Take a wife with a joyful heart,(2.10) and a son will be born in the likeness of his father.(2.11) * Do not let your heart grow big with your strength:(2.12) be not the man who lifts himself alone.(2.13) A son was born to me; he was wise;(2.14) I told him all that my father told me.(2.15) He walked before me as one grown old,(2.16) and every word I gave him he kept.(2.17) He sat within the house of his mother;(2.18) all the servants sang his praise.(2.19) * It is the good who give; and God has said,(2.19) "Place him over the harvest of the land."

(3.1) May he give a heart to you, my son, and hearing,(3.2) and let him open your eyes to the two ways of men.(3.3) Hear, my son, the words I speak,(3.4) for the wise horus-bird speaks to you.(3.5) My mother bore me to my father —(3.6) a son given in answer to prayer.(3.7) The most precious thing a man can have is a son,(3.8) and God has given him to you as a gift.(3.9) * Do not plot against the man who plots against you,(3.10) but answer him out of your own quietness.(3.11) Leave him to God; leave him to the morning,(3.12) and let God's hands carry him away.(3.13) Sleep in peace through the dark hours;(3.14) in the morning you will see what God has done.(3.15) Do not cry out to the sky, for God knows,(3.16) and the storm will pass and heaven grow clear.(3.17) Do not stir up the flood within yourself,(3.18) for it is God who carries the truth along.(3.19) * The crooked river runs; and God(3.19) is the quiet bank that holds it in.

(4.1) My son, hear; turn your ear to me;(4.2) open your heart to what your father says:(4.3) guard yourself against the quarrelsome man,(4.4) the hot-headed one, the judge's scourge.(4.5) Do not let your heart answer him quickly,(4.6) and he will turn back into his own silence.(4.7) Do not answer a man when his heart is hot;(4.8) be quiet before him; that is how you win.(4.9) * When a man argues, do not step in —(4.10) do not be swept up in another's quarrel.(4.11) If a quarrel comes and you stand apart,(4.12) it will fade like water from your hands.(4.13) Do not make friends with the fire-hearted man,(4.14) nor walk beside him on the road.(4.15) Let your eye watch what is before you;(4.16) guard your tongue against the moment's rage.(4.17) If a hot-headed man speaks to you,(4.18) turn your face away and hold your peace.(4.19) Leave him to himself; the word will fall,(4.19) and God will send the wind that clears it.

(5.1) Stir not the flood; be not the man who argues;(5.2) do not answer a heart that is burning;(5.3) bend before the hot one; the crocodile's tongue(5.4) will curl back into its own stillness.(5.5) My son, keep the teaching of your father;(5.6) take it deep into your heart,(5.7) for it is a beacon over the water:(5.8) walk in it, and your foot will not fail.(5.9) Do not eat bread under a man's roof(5.10) without first giving him your eye and your peace.(5.11) * Beware of stealing the field of the poor,(5.12) and of trampling the vineyard of the widow.(5.13) Do not put your hand to the furrow of the fatherless,(5.14) nor lift the boundary of the man who has no protector.(5.15) Their plea will rise in the end, and you will hear;(5.16) their cry will reach the sky above you.(5.17) The silence of the broken is louder than thunder;(5.18) the strong ox lowing is not like the arrow's cry.(5.19) * Do not fill your heart with the field of another;(5.19) let the morning come, and God will weigh it.

(6.1) Do not steal from the wounded man in the street,(6.2) nor carry off the harvest of the blind.(6.3) Do not take the water-pot of the orphan(6.4) nor the blind man's ship upon the river.(6.5) Do not tear up the stake of the field(6.6) nor the boundary set by the scribe's rope.(6.7) Do not say, "My father gave me this field";(6.8) God will gather what God has given.(6.9) * Do not trespass on the widow as you walk,(6.10) nor take long steps into her field.(6.11) Do not stretch out your hand to the man(6.12) who is bent under the harvest of another.(6.13) Do not turn back the scale in the balance,(6.14) nor tip the weights of the hand-scale.(6.15) Do not deal falsely with the grain,(6.16) nor lift the bushel in the thief's way.(6.17) Do not rest your heart on the measure,(6.18) as if to make the handful into the heaped measure.(6.19) God is the one who weighs; He is the hand;(6.19) do not lean on the way of the false.

(6.20) * Do not take by violence the share of the widow,(6.20) nor lay claim to the fields of the orphan.(7.1) Do not plant your fence across another's field,(7.2) nor take the pin that holds the lock.(7.3) The heart is not light when it has robbed;(7.4) a theft is heavy; it sinks the boat.(7.5) The soul of the thief is not quiet;(7.6) he fears the morning of the reckoning.(7.7) God has charged the river to watch,(7.8) and the flow of the water does not sleep.(7.9) * Do not say, "My ways are secret";(7.10) the river knows, and it will tell.(7.11) God has set his hand to every deed;(7.12) He carries the crooked to the sandbank.(7.13) Do not set your heart on every treasure,(7.14) for the flood will carry the shore away.(7.15) Guard yourself against the robber's anger;(7.16) be straight, and the straight will guard you.(7.17) Do not gather riches in a stolen heap;(7.18) they will not stay the night in your house.(7.19) They will pass like water from your hands;(7.19) in the morning you will find the store empty.

(8.1) Do not eat a loaf while another starves,(8.2) nor lift your hand to fill your house alone.(8.3) The bread of God comes to every mouth;(8.4) the man who hoards is not the one who owns.(8.5) The field belongs to God, the harvest to the town;(8.6) the greedy man's house is built on sand.(8.7) Do not say, "I have found a mighty protector";(8.8) God is the protector, and He is not blind.(8.9) * Do not be proud of your wisdom;(8.10) speak with the ignorant as with the wise,(8.11) for the limits of skill are never reached,(8.12) and no artist's hand is ever full.(8.13) Fine speech is more hidden than green stone,(8.14) yet it is found with the slave-girls at the mill.(8.15) * Do not say of any man, "He is nothing";(8.16) God has not weighed him before you.(8.17) The silence of a man is worth more than speech;(8.18) do not mock the man who sits in need.(8.19) The roar of the lion belongs to the beast;(8.19) the mercy of the hand belongs to man.

(9.1) Do not let your heart swell with your learning;(9.2) do not boast that you have found the word.(9.3) Take counsel with the ignorant as with the learned,(9.4) for the full bank of skill is never reached.(9.5) Fine speech is more hidden than green stone,(9.6) yet it is found among the slave-girls at the millstones.(9.7) Be not proud of your riches, though they came to you(9.8) without your seeking: they are the gift of God.(9.9) Do not lean on tomorrow; it is not yours;(9.10) the morning may come, and your hand be empty.(9.11) The work of God is a hidden water,(9.12) and no man knows the place of its rising.(9.13) * Do not disturb the heart of the widow;(9.14) do not lay your hand upon her field.(9.15) Do not turn from the cry of the broken,(9.16) for the ear of God has heard it already.(9.17) The broken man's prayer is heard on high;(9.18) and what is written, written comes to pass.

(10.1) Be not the man who shifts the boundary,(10.2) nor the one who moves the field-mark to his side;(10.3) do not say, "My father's field is mine";(10.4) God has set the limit and written it down.(10.5) Do not turn your heart to the long life,(10.6) nor lean on the years that seem to come;(10.7) a man's life passes like a shadow on the wall,(10.8) and what is written is written from of old.(10.9) * Keep your heart steady in the midst of men;(10.10) be quiet; the truth will make its way.(10.11) Do not quarrel with the man who crosses you;(10.12) keep your hand from the moment's wrong.(10.13) The hot heart is a fire in the house of him who bears it;(10.14) be slow, and God will be your hand.(10.15) Do not speak evil of the man who is away;(10.16) speak well, and your own name will be kept.(10.17) Give your heart to what is written here:(10.18) it is the way of the excellent son, the gift of God.