Now, when I was standing on duty, I heard his voice as he spoke, as I was a little way off. My heart staggered, my arms spread out; trembling fell on every limb. I removed myself, leaping, to look for a hiding place. I put myself between two bushes, until the traveller had parted from the road.
In this passage, taken from the fourth stanza, Sinuhe is standing on duty when a messenger comes to deliver news of the king's death to the royal children. When Sinuhe overhears the conversation, his body is overcome with panic. In these lines, Sinuhe reports the impulse he follows to hide before anyone can deliver the news directly to him. The passage is significant because Sinuhe does not comment on what he was thinking when he chose to flee. Rather, the decision is an automatic reaction to the fear in his body, as if God is more in control of Sinuhe than he is himself.
Thirst's attack overtook me, and I was scorched, my throat parched. I said, "This is the taste of death." But I lifted up my heart, and gathered my limbs together, as I heard the noise of cattle lowing, caught sight of Syrians, and a leader of theirs, who had once been in Egypt, recognized me.
After traveling out of Egypt without supplies or companions, Sinuhe finds himself dehydrated. The dryness in his throat seems to indicate that he is on the verge of death. However, just as he has given up hope, Sinuhe is blessed to discover a kind Syrian who just so happens to recognize him from Egypt. With the man's generosity, Sinuhe returns to health and can continue to travel. The passage is significant because the miraculous presence of the kind Syrian occurs just when Sinuhe most needs help—an event that suggests God has intervened to keep Sinuhe alive and on his journey.
"I had not been talked of, and my face had not been spat upon; I had heard no reproaches; my name had not been heard in the herald's mouth. I do not know what brought me to this country—it is like a plan of God."
During an exchange of dialogue with Amunenshi, Sinuhe articulates the curious impulse that carried him away from Egypt. In this passage, Sinuhe explains that he had no particular reason to flee: He was not in disgrace, he was not in trouble, and no one was gossiping about him or coming after him. He concludes that whatever brought him to Retjenu was beyond his understanding, and therefore must be happening according to God's will for him.
"He is vengeful, a smasher of foreheads; close to him no one can stand. ... He is a lord of kindness, great of sweetness. Through love he has conquered. His city loves him more than its own members; it rejoices at him more than at its God."
During his first conversation with Amunenshi, Sinuhe responds to a question about how Egypt is doing with a speech of glowing praise for the new king, Senworset. In this passage, Sinuhe touches on the king's range of virtues to illustrate how Senworset is both a fearsome warrior and a beneficent leader. While Sinuhe's praise may seem hyperbolic, the passage is significant because it reveals how Egyptian rulers were treated as quasi-divine; because of this belief in the royal family's perfection, kings provoked mixed feelings of terror and adoration from followers like Sinuhe.
"Well, Egypt is certainly happy, knowing of his success. But look, you are here, and you will stay with me; I shall do you good." He placed me at the head of his children. He joined me to his eldest daughter. He had me make my choice of his country, from the choicest of what was his, on his border with another country.
Following Sinuhe's long endorsement of the King of Egypt, Amunenshi—a Palestinian chief who rules upper Retjenu—offers to set him up with a comfortable life in his land. The motivation for Amunenshi's generosity is open to interpretation, but it seems he recognizes Sinuhe's capacity for loyalty and wishes to reward it. In this way, Amunenshi comes to stand in for the king Sinuhe has praised, as though God is rewarding Sinuhe's loyalty to his earthbound heir through Amunenshi's generosity.
What he planned to do to me, I did to him; I seized what was in his tent, and stripped his camp. With this I became great, and grew copious of wealth, and grew plentiful of cattle.
After Sinuhe successfully vanquishes the insecure tribe leader who comes to challenge him, Sinuhe takes possession of the man's property just as the man threatened to do to him. With this consolidation of wealth, Sinuhe's reputation is cemented and he becomes a leader who instills respect and fear. The event is significant because it marks how far Sinuhe has come from the panic-stricken wanderer he was at the beginning of the tale.
I found his Majesty on the great throne in the portal of the electrum. Then I was stretched out prostrate, unconscious of myself in front of him, while this God was addressing me amicably. I was like a man seized in the dusk, my soul had perished, my limbs failed, my heart was not in my body. I did not know life from death.
Upon returning to Egypt, Sinuhe is brought before King Senworset. In this passage, Sinuhe recounts laying himself before the throne and dissociating from his body as the Godlike king casually addresses him. The experience of being so close to the magnificent ruler is so overwhelming that Sinuhe feels as though he has died. The passage is significant because it shows how much Sinuhe idolizes the king, who represents the presence of God in the world, and who has total authority over Sinuhe's life.
