The Book of the DeadBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Religion
The Book of the Dead
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Book of the dead; Death; Egypt -- Religion; Future life
The oldest religious texts suggest that the Egyptians always associated
the Last Judgment with the weighing of the heart in a pair of scales,
and in the illustrated papyri of the Book of the Dead great prominence
is always given to the vignettes in which this weighing is being
carried out. The heart, ab, was taken as the symbol of all the
emotions, desires, and passions, both good and evil, and out of it
proceeded the issues of life. It was intimately connected with the ka,
i.e., the double or personality of a man, and several short spells
in the Book PER-T EM HRU were composed to ensure its preservation
(Chapters XXVI-XXXB*). The great Chapter of the Judgment of Osiris,
the CXXVth, is divided into three parts, which are sometimes (as
in the Papyrus of Ani) prefaced by a Hymn to Osiris. The first part
contains the following, which was said by the deceased when he entered
the Hall of Maati, in which Osiris sat in judgment:
"Homage to thee, O Great God, Lord of Maati, [6] I have come to thee,
O my Lord, that I may behold thy beneficence. I know thee, and I know
thy name, and the names of the Forty-Two who live with thee in the
Hall of Maati, who keep ward over sinners, and feed upon their blood
on the day of estimating characters before Un-Nefer [7] ... Behold,
I have come to thee, and I have brought maat (i.e., truth, integrity)
to thee. I have destroyed sin for thee. I have not sinned against
men. I have not oppressed [my] kinsfolk. I have done no wrong in the
place of truth. I have not known worthless folk. I have not wrought
evil. I have not defrauded the oppressed one of his goods. I have
not done the things that the gods abominate. I have not vilified a
servant to his master. I have not caused pain. I have not let any man
hunger. I have made no one to weep. I have not committed murder. I have
not commanded any to commit murder for me. I have inflicted pain on
no man. I have not defrauded the temples of their oblations. I have
not purloined the cakes of the gods. I have not stolen the offerings
to the spirits (i.e., the dead). I have not committed fornication. I
have not polluted myself in the holy places of the god of my city. I
have not diminished from the bushel. I did not take from or add to the
acre-measure. I did not encroach on the fields [of others]. I have not
added to the weights of the scales. I have not misread the pointer of
the scales. I have not taken milk from the mouths of children. I have
not driven cattle from their pastures. I have not snared the birds
of the gods. I have not caught fish with fish of their kind. I have
not stopped water [when it should flow]. I have not cut the dam of
a canal. I have not extinguished a fire when it should burn. I have
not altered the times of the chosen meat offerings. I have not turned
away the cattle [intended for] offerings. I have not repulsed the
god at his appearances. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure...."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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