The world is turned upside down, cried the scribe named Ipuwer! All is ruin! Egypt has been overrun by foreigners. These and many other laments besides were recorded on a single papyrus scroll that has come to be known as the Admonitions of Ipuwer. This papyrus scroll, which dates to the 19th dynasty, is a copy of an older text. Just how old is an oft-debated question.
Ipuwer
On the now lost Daressy fragment, from a section of a
19th Dynasty tomb wall decoration at Saqqara, a group of mummies is shown alongside names and titles
of influential people in Egyptian history. Among the figures are kings, high priests, viziers, and a group of
“royal scribes” which included Ipuwer who was given the title “overseer of singers
Many scholars think that it belongs to the 2nd intermediate period when foreign rulers, the Hyksos, ruled in the delta. They who were once desert dwellers, slaves, now occupied positions of power. Thus Ipuwer could lament that the poor of the land have become rich while those who formerly owned land have nothing. The peasant girl who only saw her face in the water’s reflection now possesses a mirror. The unskilled desert dwellers are now making crafts in the Delta! And “the tribes of the desert have become Egyptians everywhere.”
“Indeed… the provinces are laid waste, and barbarians from abroad have come to Egypt. Indeed, men arrive [. . .] and indeed, there are no Egyptians anywhere.”
Now there is complete anarchy. The earth is spinning out of control, “the land turns around as does a potter’s wheel… the robber is wealthy… the many kill the few…
The good men are silent while the wicked prevail. When the wise man speaks, [he flees without delay]. The virtuous man goes in mourning because of what has happened in the land…”
Hunger and suffering are rampant. “Towns are destroyed and Upper Egypt has become an empty waste… Indeed, men are few, and he who places his brother in the ground is everywhere. Indeed, laughter is perished and is [no longer] made; it is groaning that is throughout the land, mingled with complaints.
Some of what Ipuwer describes sounds very similar to the plagues described in Exodus. Famine, slaves plundering their masters and, most strikingly, the river turning to blood!
Blood
Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it…
Darkness
“Day does not dawn on it” [the land of Egypt] (Ipuwer 9.11).
“There is no pilot on duty. Where is he today? Is he perhaps asleep? Look, the wrath [or power] thereof cannot be seen!” (Ipuwer 12.5‐12.6).
The similarities between these
“He who places his brother in the earth is everywhere” (Ipuwer 2.13‐2.14).
“Laughter has perished and is no longer done. It is mourning which is throughout the land mixed with
lamentation” (Ipuwer 3.13‐14)
“It has come to rebellion against the strong uraeus of Ra which pacifies the Two Lands” (Ipuwer 7.3‐4).
Rebellion against the Pharaoh and the gods has occurred, and yet nothing has been done to remedy the
disastrous situation.
“…want is everywhere. So it is, nor has it gone away, though these gods are in the midst” (Ipuwer 12.3‐6).
The only copy of the Ipuwer Papyrus dates to the 12th century BC, several hundred years after the exodus, but scholars think it is a copy of a much earlier work. How early is difficult to determine. There can be no doubt that it preserves the memory of a series of disasters in Egypt’s past, some of which share a common theme with the plagues described in Exodus.
The world is turned upside down, cried the scribe named Ipuwer! All is ruin! Egypt has been overrun by foreigners. These and many other laments besides were recorded on a single papyrus scroll that has come to be known as the Admonitions of Ipuwer. This papyrus scroll, which dates to the 19th dynasty, is a copy of an older text. Just how old is an oft-debated question.
Ipuwer
On the now lost Daressy fragment, from a section of a
19th Dynasty tomb wall decoration at Saqqara, a group of mummies is shown alongside names and titles
of influential people in Egyptian history. Among the figures are kings, high priests, viziers, and a group of
“royal scribes” which included Ipuwer who was given the title “overseer of singers
Many scholars think that it belongs to the 2nd intermediate period when foreign rulers, the Hyksos, ruled in the delta. They who were once desert dwellers, slaves, now occupied positions of power. Thus Ipuwer could lament that the poor of the land have become rich while those who formerly owned land have nothing. The peasant girl who only saw her face in the water’s reflection now possesses a mirror. The unskilled desert dwellers are now making crafts in the Delta! And “the tribes of the desert have become Egyptians everywhere.”
“Indeed… the provinces are laid waste, and barbarians from abroad have come to Egypt. Indeed, men arrive [. . .] and indeed, there are no Egyptians anywhere.”
Now there is complete anarchy. The earth is spinning out of control, “the land turns around as does a potter’s wheel… the robber is wealthy… the many kill the few…
The good men are silent while the wicked prevail. When the wise man speaks, [he flees without delay]. The virtuous man goes in mourning because of what has happened in the land…”
Hunger and suffering are rampant. “Towns are destroyed and Upper Egypt has become an empty waste… Indeed, men are few, and he who places his brother in the ground is everywhere. Indeed, laughter is perished and is [no longer] made; it is groaning that is throughout the land, mingled with complaints.
Some of what Ipuwer describes sounds very similar to the plagues described in Exodus. Famine, slaves plundering their masters and, most strikingly, the river turning to blood!
Blood
Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it…
Darkness
“Day does not dawn on it” [the land of Egypt] (Ipuwer 9.11).
“There is no pilot on duty. Where is he today? Is he perhaps asleep? Look, the wrath [or power] thereof cannot be seen!” (Ipuwer 12.5‐12.6).
The similarities between these
“He who places his brother in the earth is everywhere” (Ipuwer 2.13‐2.14).
“Laughter has perished and is no longer done. It is mourning which is throughout the land mixed with
lamentation” (Ipuwer 3.13‐14)
“It has come to rebellion against the strong uraeus of Ra which pacifies the Two Lands” (Ipuwer 7.3‐4).
Rebellion against the Pharaoh and the gods has occurred, and yet nothing has been done to remedy the
disastrous situation.
“…want is everywhere. So it is, nor has it gone away, though these gods are in the midst” (Ipuwer 12.3‐6).
The only copy of the Ipuwer Papyrus dates to the 12th century BC, several hundred years after the exodus, but scholars think it is a copy of a much earlier work. How early is difficult to determine. There can be no doubt that it preserves the memory of a series of disasters in Egypt’s past, some of which share a common theme with the plagues described in Exodus.