THE BILINGUAL DECREES OF PHILAE. wt 
THE BAD TIMES DURING THE REBELLION—continued. 
HIEROGLYPHIC TEXT. DEMOTIC TEXT. 
m-—tp SW 
in the condition (of) anarchy(?). : 
rob 8b ; 
[Hlift-sn | hir nw ww | n—h|tyw]  [n—- ts]w. 
They robbed the taxes of the (administrative) [stealing] the [taxes of the nomles. 
districts; 
hb-sn mw E-w = hb(?) mw 
they damaged* (or: ruined) the water (constructions); | They damaged’ (the) water (works). 
h}‘—sn Be Sa. bali bens, E-w 
they abandoned [the dam (?) constructions].* They 
THE KING SPECIALLY PROTECTS THE TEMPLES DURING THE REBELLION. 
rin n—st byty 
(There) made® the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, 
roc 
aci lee | Ptw,twmys, ‘nh zt, 
the son of [the Sun], Ptolemy, ever living, 
Pth mr s-wew(?) ’s(?) ’w [sdwi] 
beloved of Ptah, orders(?)*® also(?) for these 



1 Literally: “‘emptiness, condition of vacancy,” i. e., time without government. ‘This is parallel with the 
famous passage (Harris, I, 75, 1) where the years of anarchy, without a legitimate king, are called ‘“‘empty”’ 
(Swyw) (priests), Mar. Abyd., I, 6, 30, (of desolated and dilapidated tombs), where we see that ¢p has lost its original 
meaning “beginning,” and may freely be translated “state, condition” (or “pitch, height’’?). Second determi- 
native “arm.” 
- 2 Read hitf. The earliest examples of this word betray, by the syllabic orthography hu-t-f, that it is a Canaanaic 
loanword, 7. e., Hebrew /iataph (not hataph, which seems to have a h— after the cognate languages); like that Hebrew 
word it expresses ‘“‘(open) plundering in war” (LD., III, 16a, 6; 65a, 4; Mar. Karn. 37, 30=RI H. 36), while Coptic 
hoft has assumed the sense “‘to steal.” In our passage we can follow the transition to a disgraceful meaning. 
3 The word hb(;) might be understood also as “to diminish, to cut short,” cp. e. g., Sallier I, 7, 3 =Anast. 
VII, 2, 4, (of failure to clothe), AZ. 1884, 39, 1. 17 (of temple income) ; similarly Rec. Trav. 16, 43, Mon. Div. 29a, 5, 
Mar. Abyd, II, 36, 4, Totb. Nav. 125, Intr. 13 and 16 (of sacrifices). Eloguent Peasant, Berl. 11, 18=IV, 48, parallel 
with hz. The word has, however, often stronger sense: “‘to ruin, destroy, annihilate,” e. g., Lepsius, Auswahl 12 
(object: tribes), Toth. Nav. 154, 6 (corpses), Pap. Leyden, I, 344, 15, 1 (a country), Hierat. Inscr. 29,, 7 (the god 
annihilates sinners), Peasant, Berlin, II, 142, etc.; above all, Damanhur 22 = Ros. Gr. 26, diapbeipav. Consequently, 
I should not limit the above passage to the tame measure of “digging off irrigation canals,’’ but would include the 
opening.of dams, a means of warfare as common in Egypt as in Babylonia or Holland; cp. Polybius, V, 62, 4. It 
was considered as a desperate action and not quite fair because it entailed long labor for restorations. 
4’The determinative “‘house, building’? seems to be recognizable. It would be easy to restore the traces to 
ht-ntr “temple,’’ but the profanations of sacred property by the rebels have been described before. ‘There is 
also no space for a plural mark with ‘ ‘temple(s).” Thus it is difficult to fill the gap after the verb; with ‘‘dam’’ we 
should not expect the determinative “building.” 
’ The first idea suggesting itself is to make this a relative clause: “‘[the constructions] (which) the king had 
made.” I think, however, the style (perhaps also the unusual verbal form in -t-n, which, of course, must not be 
treated after the classical grammar) points to the beginning of a newsection. Constructions of Ptolemy V. 
could not be meant. ' 
° This meaning is probable according to the context. The reading of the hieroglyphic traces seems partly: 
wz (with small, crossing serpent z?), bookroll, plural strokes. If the word shnw “expenses,” discussed above 
_(p. 35, note 2) was meant, it would be strongly dishgured. S-wz-w means: “orders, administrative measures.” 
7 See note 3 on the hieroglyphic word hb(;), which seems also to be employed in the demotic text. 
