Papyrus section 10

(10.1) If you are prosperous, establish your household; love your wife within it as is fitting. Fill her belly;

(10.2) clothe her back. Ointment is the remedy for her body.

(10.3) Gladden her heart as long as you live, for she is a fruitful field for her lord.

(10.4) Do not contend with her at law; do not give power to her anger. Her eye is the storm: restrain its gaze,

(10.5) and it will make her remain in your house. Give to your intimates from what has come to you; satisfy them from what fills your heart.

(10.6) What you love comes through the god’s favor. Of the man who does not satisfy his intimates, people say:

(10.7) “He is a ka that feeds itself.” What is to come is unknown, though a man imagines tomorrow.

(10.8) No one knows what may befall. It is through upright character that contentment endures. Set your house in order; establish it firmly.

(10.9) Your intimates are your field in the hour of need. When deeds worthy of praise are done, it is they who say, “Welcome!”

(10.10) Guard your heart against repeating a report you have not verified. Such speech is harmful to its master; listen with discernment.

(10.11) Do not spread it through the town or answer it in kind. Let a man recount what he has seen, not what he has merely heard.

(10.12) As for what occurs in your own house, let your two eyes witness it: the deed itself is the measure, not the clamor raised around it.

(10.1) to make your conduct good and keep yourself free of every evil, guard your heart against greed.

(10.2) It is a painful disease of the body, an incurable sickness. No treatment exists for it. It embroils fathers and mothers,

(10.3) together with a mother’s brothers, and it separates a wife from her husband.

(10.4) It is a compound of every evil, a bundle of everything hateful. The man who is exact endures, walking by Maat according to his steps.

(10.5) He will make his estate through it. The greedy man has no tomb. Do not be greedy when shares are divided.

(10.6) Do not covet more than your portion, and do not be greedy toward your relatives. The gentle man has a greater claim than the forceful one.

(10.7) Miserable is the man who quarrels with his relatives: he is denied an answering word. Even a little thing that is coveted

(10.8) can make conflict arise in a calm man. If you are capable, do what is right and establish your household.

(10.9) Love your wife at home as is proper. Fill her belly and clothe her back; ointment is the remedy for her body.

(10.10) Make her heart happy as long as you live. She is a fruitful field for her lord. Do not contend with her in court; keep her from power and restrain her.

(10.11) Her eye is her storm when she looks. Watch over her, and you will make her remain

(10.12) in your house. Satisfy your dependents with what has come to you. That is the lot of a man favored by the god. As for one who does not satisfy his dependents, people say of him—