25. Bright is the earth when thou risest in the horizon. Thou drivest away the darkness. The Two Lands (Egypt) are in daily festivity, Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing, 35. All cattle rest upon their pasturage, 40. All wingèd things fly, They live when thou hast shone upon them. The barques sail upstream and downstream alike. 45. The fish in the river leap up before thee. The rays are in the midst of the great green sea. Creator of the germ in woman, Maker of seed in man, Giving life to the son in the body of his mother, 50. Soothing him that he may not weep, Nurse (even) in the womb, Giver of breath to animate every one that he maketh! When he cometh forth from the body......on the day of his birth, Thou openest his mouth in speech, 55. Thou suppliest his necessities. When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell, Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive. When thou hast brought him together, To (the point of) bursting it in the egg, 60. He cometh forth from the egg To chirp with all his might. He goeth about on his two feet How manifold are thy works!1 65. They are hidden from before (us), O sole God, whose powers no other possesseth. Men, all cattle large and small, 70. All that are upon the earth, That go about upon their feet; [All] that are on high, That fly with their wings. The foreign countries, Syria and Kush, 1 Compare Psa. 104: 24. 75. The land of Egypt; Thou settest every man into his place, Every one has his possessions, And his days are reckoned. 80. The tongues are divers in speech, Their forms likewise and their skins are distinguished. (For) thou makest different the strangers. Thou makest the Nile in the Nether World, 85. To preserve alive the people. For thou hast made them for thyself, 90. All the distant countries, Thou makest (also) their life, Thou hast set a Nile in the sky; 95. It maketh waves upon the mountains, Watering their fields in their towns. How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity! 100. And for the cattle of every country that go upon their feet. Thy rays nourish every garden; When thou risest they live, 105. Thou makest the seasons In order to create all thy work: Winter to bring them coolness, And heat that they may taste thee. Thou didst make the distant sky to rise therein, 110. In order to behold all that thou hast made, Thou alone, shining in thy form as living Aton, Dawning, glittering, going afar and returning. Thou makest millions of forms Through thyself alone; 115. Cities, towns, and tribes, highways and rivers. All eyes see before them, For thou art Aton of the day over the earth. Thou art in my heart, 120. There is no other that knoweth thee Save thy son Ikhnaton.1 Thou hast made him wise In thy designs and in thy might. The world is in thy hand, 1 Ikhnaton is the name adopted by Amenophis IV in connection with his reform. It means "Aton's man." His old name meant "Amon is gracious" and had heathen associations. On the sentiment of lines 120, 121, compare Matt. 11: 27. 135. Thou didst establish the world, The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, 140. Nefer-khepru-Re, Wan-Re (Ikhnaton), Son of Re, living in Truth, lord of diadems, Ikhnaton, whose life is long; And for the chief royal wife, his beloved, Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aton, Nofretete, 145. Living and flourishing for ever and ever. 8. Comparison with the Psalter. This long hymn contains many beautiful passages, and, in addition to the line "How manifold are thy works!" often reminds one of Psa. 104, though in religious feeling it falls well below that psalm. Ikhnaton speaks of himself toward the end of his hymn as the one "whose life is long," but the poor fellow died before he was thirty years old. His mummy was found a few years ago, and it is that of a young man. Vain were his hopes, unless his words refer to the immortal life. These Egyptian hymns, like the Babylonian, exhibit a high degree of poetic and intellectual power, and much deep religious feeling, but the men who wrote them somehow lacked that deep religious insight and simple power of emotional expression that were given to the Hebrews. Their compositions but set in clearer relief the beauty, depth, and inspirational power of the Hebrew Psalms. 1 See Weigall, The Treasury of Ancient Egypt, London, 1911, p. 206. CHAPTER XXII PARALLELS TO PROVERBS AND ECCLESIASTES THE NATURE OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS AND THE PARALLELS. BABYLONIAN PROVERBS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL. PRECEPTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. EGYPTIAN PRECEPTS OF PTAHHOTEP. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. PARALLEL TO ECCLESIASTES FROM THE GILGAMESH EPIC. BOTH Egypt and Babylon furnish parallels to the book of Proverbs. The Biblical book of Proverbs contains a long connected discourse of advice (Prov. 1-9) and various collections of disconnected proverbs (Prov. 10-29). Parallels to both are found in Egypt and in Babylonia. The library of Ashurbanipal contained a collection of proverbs in two languages, arranged as reading lessons for students. A few examples are here given. 1. Some Babylonian Proverbs from the Library of Ashurbanipal.1 1. A hostile act thou shalt not perform, that fear of vengeance (?) shall not consume thee. 2. Thou shalt not do evil, that life (?) eternal thou mayest obtain. 3. Does a woman conceive when a virgin, or grow great without eating? 4. If I put anything down it is snatched away; if I do more than is expected, who will repay me? 5. He has dug a well where no water is; he has raised a husk without kernel. 6. Does a marsh receive the price of its reeds, or fields the price of their vegetation? 7. The strong live by their own wages; the weak by the wages of their children. 8. He is altogether good, but he is clothed with darkness. 9. The face of a toiling ox thou shalt not strike with a goad. 10. My knees go, my feet are unwearied; but a fool has cut into my course. 11. His ass I am; I am harnessed to a mule; a wagon I draw; to seek reeds and fodder I go forth. 12. The life of day before yesterday has departed today. 13. If the husk is not right, the kernel is not right; it will not produce seed. 14. The tall grain thrives, but what do we understand of it? The meager grain thrives, but what do we understand of it? 15. The city whose weapons are not strong-the enemy before its gates shall not be thrust through. 1 The first twenty are culled from a tablet in the British Museum, published by Langdon in the American Journal of Semitic Languages, Vol. XXVIII, 217-243, under the title "Babylonian Proverbs." For convenience those quoted are numbered consecutively without reference to the parts omitted. 16. If thou goest and takest the field of an enemy, the enemy will come and take thy field. 17. Upon a glad heart oil is poured out of which no one knows. 18. Friendship is for the day of trouble; posterity for the future. 19. An ass in another city becomes its head. The idea is similar to Matt. 13:57: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house." 20. Writing is the mother of eloquence and the father of artists. 21. Be gentle to thy enemy as to an old oven.1 22. The gift of the king is the nobility of the exalted; the gift of the king is the favor of governors. 23. Friendship in days of prosperity is servitude forever. 24. There is strife where servants are; slander where anointers anoint. 25. When thou seest the gain of the fear of god, exalt god and bless the king." 2. Precepts from the Library of Ashurbanipal.3 Thou shalt not slander, (but) speak kindly; Thou shalt not speak evil, (but) show mercy. Him who slanders (and) speaks evil, With its recompense will Shamash visit (?) his head. Thou shalt not make large thy mouth, but guard thy lip; If thou speakest quickly, thou wilt repent (?) afterward, Daily present to thy god Offering and prayer, appropriate to incense. Before thy god mayest thou have a pure heart, For that is appropriate to deity. Prayer, petition, and prostration Early in the morning shalt thou render him; he will judge thy burdens (?), And with the help of God thou wilt be abundantly prosperous. In thy wisdom learn of the tablet; The fear (of God) begets favor, Offering enriches life, And prayer brings forgiveness of sins. (The text of the rest is too broken for connected translation.) 3. Comparison with the Bible. None of the sentiments expressed in these proverbs is identical with any in the Bible. No. 21 is on the same subject as Prov. 24: 17; No. 22 reminds one slightly of the first clause of Prov. 14: 35; No. 23 1 Translated from Delitzsch's Assyrische Lesestücke, 4th ed., p. 118, f. • Translated from Meissner's Beiträge zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht, p. 108. |