A king’s tomb at Thebes gives us in few words the religious creed of a Pharaoh:—­

“I lived in truth, and fed my soul with justice.  What I did to men was done in peace, and how I loved God, God and my heart well know.  I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and a shelter to the stranger.  I honored the gods with sacrifices, and the dead with offerings.”

A rock at Lycopolis pleads for an ancient ruler thus:  “I never took the child from its mother’s bosom, nor the poor man from the side of his wife.”  Hundreds of stones in Egypt announce as the best gifts which the gods can bestow on their favorites, “the respect of men, and the love of women."[164] Religion, therefore, in Egypt, connected itself with morality and the duties of daily life.  But kings and conquerors were not above the laws of their religion.  They were obliged to recognize their power and triumphs as not their own work, but that of the great gods of their country.  Thus, on a monumental stele discovered at Karnak by M. Mariette, and translated by De Rouge,[165] is an inscription recording the triumphs of Thothmes III., of the eighteenth dynasty (about B.C. 1600), which sounds like the song of Miriam or the Hymn of Deborah.  We give some stanzas in which the god Amun addresses Thothmes:—­

    “I am come:  to thee have I given to strike down Syrian princes;
    Under thy feet they lie throughout the breadth of their country,
    Like to the Lord of Light, I made them see thy glory,
    Blinding their eyes with light, O earthly image of Amun!

    “I am come:  to thee have I given to strike down Asian peoples;
    Captive now thou hast led the proud Assyrian chieftains;
    Decked in royal robes, I made them see thy glory;
    In glittering arms and fighting, high in thy lofty chariot.

    “I am come:  to thee have I given to strike down western nations;
    Cyprus and the Ases have both heard thy name with terror;
    Like a strong-horned bull I made them see thy glory;
    Strong with piercing horns, so that none can stand before him.

    “I am come:  to thee have I given to strike down Lybian archers;
    All the isles of the Greeks submit to the force of thy spirit;
    Like a regal lion, I made them see thy glory;
    Couched by the corpse he has made, down in the rocky valley.

    “I am come:  to thee have I given to strike down the ends of the ocean. 
    In the grasp of thy hand is the circling zone of the waters;
    Like the soaring eagle, I have made them see thy glory,
    Whose far-seeing eye there is none can hope to escape from.”