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Source for the composition: chapters 96 and 97 are not attested before the New Kingdom. In the earlier Eighteenth Dynasty manuscripts, they form a single composition; in latere Eighteenth Dynasty manuscripts they are divided into two. Chapter 96 is a short declaration to secure a place beside Thoth, god of knowledge, in the afterlife; in the declaration the deceased seems to carry out the tasks of that god. Chapter 97 asserts control over the fields and waters that guarantee an eternal supply of offerings.

The following transliteration and translation are taken from the version preserved in the mid to late Eighteenth Dynasty papyrus of Nu (British Museum EA 10477), where the two chapters are combined.

 

Title of combined Chapter 96-97

r n wn r-gs DHwty rdit Ax s m Xrt-nTr

Formula for being beside Thoth and causing a man to be a transfigured spirit in the underworld

Chapter 96

ink Hry irt.f

ii.n.i di.i mAat n ra

sHtp.n.i swty m nXX n Akrw

dSrw n imAx n gb

I am the one who is over his eye.

I have come to give What is Right to Ra.

I have pacified Seth with the spittle of Aker

and the blood of the spine of Geb

Chapter 97

msktt wAs n inpw

Htp n.i Axw ipn imyw Sms n nb xt

ink nb sxt m wd.sn

ink it baH dr ibt sAA Sw

mAA irf Tn nTrw ipw wrw aAw

xntyw bAw iwnw

iw.i qa.kwi Hr tp.Tn

ink mnx imy.Tn

mk wi twri.i n bA.i wr aA

n rdi.tw.i n sDb pwy pr m r.Tn

iw sbw n wDb.f Hr.i

wab.i m S n sHtp wDa

m SdH.n.i m ntrt.i

Xr nht n ntrt.i n pt

ist sqbb mAa xrw nbw tp-a

spr wnw mAat

ink mty mAa imy tA

ink aw n r.f

sxm n nb wa ra wr anx m mAat

im rdi nkn r.i

HAw hrw m xntyw r xt nbt

O night-bark, O sceptre of Anubis,

Those spirits who are in the following of the lord of offerings are content for me.

I am the lord of the marsh by their command.

I am the father of the flood, removing thirst, guarding the pools.

See then, O those great and grand gods,

the foremost of the powers of Iunu:

I am higher than your heads,

I am the effective one among you.

See, I am cleansed for my soul, great and grand.

I have not been given to that obstacle that comes from your mouths;

it is gone - it did not turn on me.

I am purified in the pool from pacifying the judgement,

when I had tied the headband with my divine eye,

under the sycamore of my divine quality of the sky.

Indeed all the previously justified are refreshed,

as those who travel in What is Right arrive.

I am one who is exact and right, who is in the earth.

I am the interpreter for his speech,

the powerful one of the sole lord, Ra, the great one who lives on What is Right.

Do not inflict injury on me.

The day is unveiled with those who are foremost in all offerings.