egyptian · literary

The Admonitions of Ipuwer

c. 1850 BCE · Middle Kingdom · Egypt

Section I — The World Turned Upside Down

1The door-keepers say: "Let us go and plunder."
2The confectioners say: "Let us go and plunder."
3The washermen refuse to carry their loads.
4The bird-catchers have marshalled their forces.
5Behold, Egypt has fallen into distress:
6The poor man is become the possessor of wealth;
7He who could not make for himself sandals is now the possessor of riches.
8Behold, the well-to-do are in mourning and the poor exult.
9Every town says: "Let us suppress the powerful among us."
10Behold, the great men hunger and suffer.
11The servants are served.
12Behold, the children of princes are dashed against the walls.
13The children who were held in such esteem — they are thrown out in the streets.
14Neither the face of the king is seen,
15Nor is the face of the great ones seen.

Section II — Social Collapse

16Lo, the great and small say: "I wish I were dead."
17The children of the great are beaten against the walls.
18Behold, those who have tombs are thrown out of them.
19The noble are in distress because of what has happened,
20While the rabble of the land goes to and fro before them.
21The scribes whose hands are full of papyrus — their scrolls are taken from them.
22The poor man possesses himself of these.
23Lo, what the pyramid concealed has become empty.
24Lo, it has happened: the land is deprived of the kingship by a few senseless men.
25Lo, men rebel against the Serpent —
26He who was inviolate is now stripped of his honour.
27Lo, the crocodile lies down in the midst of the people,
28Yet he cannot touch them, for all power has gone out of him.
29Lo, the secret of the land — its limit is made known;
30And that which was covered is uncovered.
31Deserted is the residence; the provinces are laid waste.
32The upper room is made accessible to all.

Section III — The Nile and the Land

33Lo, the Nile overflows, yet none plough for it.
34Everyone says: "We do not know what has happened throughout the land."
35Lo, women are barren, none can conceive.
36Khnum does not fashion because of the condition of the land.
37Lo, poor men have become owners of wealth;
38He who could not make for himself sandals possesses riches now.
39Lo, the hearts of men are violent.
40Pestilence is throughout the land,
41Blood is everywhere, death is not lacking.
42The shroud speaks before one approaches it.
43Lo, many dead men are buried in the river.
44The stream has become a tomb.
45The washing basin has become a place of burial.
46The place of embalming has become a river.
47Lo, the corn of Egypt is cut down.
48The granary is empty.
49The keeper of the granary lies on the ground.
50The corn merchant is stripped of everything he has.

Section IV — The Failure of Order

51What the ancestors foretold has happened.
52The land is full of gangs.
53A man goes to plough with his shield.
54Lo, the meek say: "He who is wrathful of face is a strong man."
55The hearts of men are violent.
56Pestilence is throughout the land.
57The desert is throughout the land.
58The foreign countries have become people who know Egypt.
59Indeed, the land has been despoiled:
60Indeed, the powerful of the land have been made to drag burdens.
61Behold, the fire has gone up high.
62Its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land.
63There is no pilot in this hour.
64Where is he today?
65Does he sleep? Behold, his power is not seen.

Section V — Where Is the King?

66If only he could experience this suffering with us —
67Would that he could see it!
68Then he would suppress the anger of the land.
69Would that he could hear the words of the counsellors.
70Lo, the face has gone. The face appears no more.
71Would that Ra would raise himself against this.
72Would that Ra would distinguish truth from falsehood.
73Would that Ra would recognise the man who fears him.
74Authority, perception, and justice are with you —
75But it is confusion which you set throughout the land,
76Together with the noise of contention.
77Behold, one attacks another.
78Men conform to what you have commanded.

Section VI — Memories of Order

79Remember: it was said of old:
80"The one-hearted king — he gives bread to those who are in his service."
81Remember: to pour out water for the officials —
82And those who followed him were great men.
83How hard and painful are the ways of the times!
84Lo, the scribes have been slaughtered.
85Lo, their writings are taken.
86Woe is me for the grief of this time!
87Recall what has been lost:
88The cedar-wood, the ointment and the natron,
89The cloth of Aset, the incense of the gods.
90Offerings of pure oil have ceased.
91Would that these were returned!

Section VII — The Divine Herdsman

92Ah, that the herdsman could be seen!
93He who looks after his flock —
94He who counts them and knows each one.
95He who drives them in to shelter.
96Who counts them and who drives them to pasture.
97Where is he?
98Does he not know the state of things?
99Has he not understood it?
100The herdsman has perished!
101Behold, a marvel: the gods come — the cattle go forth.
102Truly, the whole world is in confusion.
103Weep, you who ought to give water to the land!
104Know, you who are over the sea:
105The sea of the Two Lands has become the great ocean.

Section VIII — The Ideal King (The Lost Ending)

106[The following passage is from the damaged closing section]
107"He who can make cold what is hot —
108He who can make short what is long —
109He who can give breath to him who is suffocating —
110He who can give peace to him who is anxious."
111Is there one who brings coolness?
112Then he shall cool the land when it is in a flame.
113Is there one whose words are satisfying?
114Then let him speak to us in this land!
115There was a time when a man had to wait for his burial.
116Burial was the delight of the heart.
117Now that which was the delight of the heart has become a painful matter.
118[The papyrus breaks off here. Several columns are lost.]

notes

The Admonitions of Ipuwer (also known as the Ipuwer Papyrus, or The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage) is one of the most controversial and evocative documents from ancient Egypt. It survives in a single papyrus (Leiden Papyrus 344) held in the Leiden Museum, dating to the New Kingdom period (c. 1550–1070 BCE), but the composition is considerably older — most scholars date the original to the late Middle Kingdom or Second Intermediate Period (c. 1850–1650 BCE). The text is a lament attributed to a sage named Ipuwer, addressed to an unnamed pharaoh, describing a period of catastrophic social collapse. The text has been the subject of intense scholarly debate since its discovery, primarily over the question of whether it describes a real historical catastrophe or is a literary exercise — a genre piece using stock imagery of disorder. Gardiner's 1909 edition, the standard scholarly text, argued for a historical reading. Subsequent scholars have noted that similar "lament literature" exists across the ancient Near East (the Lament for the Destruction of Ur being a close Sumerian parallel) and that the genre may involve conventional rhetorical inversion — describing chaos as a contrast to the ideal order that right kingship would restore. The most controversial modern reading of the Ipuwer Papyrus is that of Immanuel Velikovsky (Worlds in Collision, 1950; Ages in Chaos, 1952), who argued that the text describes the biblical plagues of Egypt and the Exodus, noting parallels between Ipuwer's images (the Nile running with blood, hailstorms, darkness) and the plagues described in Exodus. This reading has been rejected by mainstream Egyptologists, who note that the text's imagery is conventional lament language rather than specific historical reporting, and that the chronological alignment with any putative Exodus is unworkable on standard dating. The theological content of the text is significant regardless of the historical debate. The implicit challenge to royal legitimacy — "Where is the king? Does he sleep?" — is unusual in Egyptian literature, which normally presents the pharaoh as the guarantee of cosmic order (Maat). When Ipuwer says "neither the face of the king is seen, nor is the face of the great ones seen," he is describing the failure of divine kingship itself. The text's call for an ideal king — a "divine herdsman" who would restore order — anticipates later Egyptian messianic literature. The translation follows A.H. Gardiner's 1909 edition, the standard scholarly text and the basis for all subsequent translations. It is public domain.

currently held: National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden (Papyrus Leiden I 344)

Flood NarrativePrimordial HistoryLament

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