The Bench of Forty-Two
Before the heart is weighed, the dead must speak — not to the judge, but to a bench. Forty-two gods sit in the hall of the Two Truths. The dead person addresses each one by name, states where that god comes from, and denies one specific sin.
The result is one of the strangest documents in ancient religion: a moral code delivered as a roll-call. One judge handles theft. One handles short measure at the market. One handles eavesdropping. One handles losing your temper without cause.
Each judge comes from a real town. The bench is a map of Egypt — the judgment of the dead, staffed by delegates from across the country.
The text is a sequence — the dead person addresses each judge in turn, by name, and denies one specific sin. Read it that way, or see the whole bench at once.
-
1
Annu (Heliopolis)
“I have not done iniquity.”
-
2
Kher-āba
“I have not robbed with violence.”
-
3
Khemennu (Hermopolis)
“I have not done violence [to any man].”
-
4
the place where the Nile riseth
“I have not committed theft.”
-
5
Re-stau
“I have not slain man or woman.”
-
6
heaven
“I have not made light the bushel.”
-
7
Sekhem (Letopolis)
“I have not acted deceitfully.”
-
8
[thou] goest back
“I have not purloined the things which belong unto God.”
-
9
Suten-henen (Heracleopolis)
“I have not uttered falsehood.”
-
10
Het-ka-Ptah (Memphis)
“I have not carried away food.”
-
11
Amentet
“I have not uttered evil words.”
-
12
Ta-she (i.e. , the Fayyûm)
“I have not attacked no man.”
-
13
the house of slaughter
“I have not killed the beasts [which are the property of God].”
-
14
the mābet chamber
“I have not acted deceitfully.”
-
15
the city of double Maāti
“I have not laid waste the lands which have been ploughed(?).”
-
16
lost in the scan
Not reconstructed.
-
17
Annu (Heliopolis)
“I have not set my mouth in motion [against any man].”
-
18
the nome of Ati
“I have not given way to wrath concerning myself without a cause.”
-
19
the house of slaughter
“I have not defiled the wife of a man.”
-
20
the Temple of Amsu
“I have not committed any sin against purity.”
-
21
the city of Nehatu
“I have not struck fear [into any man].”
-
22
the Lake of Kaui
“I have not encroached upon [sacred times and seasons].”
-
23
Urit
“I have not been a man of anger.”
-
24
the Lake of Heq-at
“I have not made myself deaf to the words of right and truth.”
-
25
the city of Unes
“I have not stirred up strife.”
-
26
Declaration not yet recovered
-
27
Declaration not yet recovered
-
28
Declaration not yet recovered
-
29
Declaration not yet recovered
-
30
Declaration not yet recovered
-
31
Declaration not yet recovered
-
32
Declaration not yet recovered
-
33
Declaration not yet recovered
-
34
Declaration not yet recovered
-
35
Declaration not yet recovered
-
36
Declaration not yet recovered
-
37
Ahi-mu ⚠
Declaration not yet recovered
-
38
Declaration not yet recovered
-
39
Declaration not yet recovered
-
40
Declaration not yet recovered
-
41
Declaration not yet recovered
-
42
Declaration not yet recovered
Two honest gaps
Number 16 is missing. The scan of Budge's 1904 name list drops the entry between 15 and 17. It has not been filled in from memory or from a secondary retelling. The gap is recorded as a gap.
Seventeen declarations are missing. The 1901 anthology prints only the first twenty-five, so seventeen judges here have a name and a seat but no town and no sin. Budge's 1895 Papyrus of Ani is the obvious source for the rest.
The roster is assembled from two works by the same translator, drawn from the same sheet of the same papyrus. Where they overlap they agree — and that agreement is checked automatically, because during development the check caught a real column-slip that had shifted every name from 21 onward by one.
Where this comes from
One witness: the Papyrus of Nebseni, British Museum No. 9,900, sheet 30. Both sources below are public domain, both are Budge, and both are read from that same sheet.
- Budge 1901, Egyptian Literature — the town and the sin for declarations 1–25. He renders most assessors by translating their epithets ("thou Crusher of bones") rather than transliterating their names.
- Budge 1904, The Gods of the Egyptians vol. I — the transliterated Egyptian names for the full list.
Merging the two recovers 41 of the 42 names, and a complete record — name, town and sin — for 24. Numbers 5, 11, 17, 19 and 22 carry recognisable names in both and were extracted independently; they match.
The Budge caveat applies. Both works are used here for transcription of names, places and formulae — where he is most dependable — and not for interpretation.