Violence is rampant. Foreign invaders are everywhere, with no one to hold them in check. The natural order of things has come to a crashing standstill. Slaves have disappeared and taken all the wealth of Egypt with them. Based on its literary style, it seems to be an eye-witness account of Egypt not long after the dissolution of the Old Kingdom.
Blood is everywhere.
No fruit or herbs are found . . . Forsooth, grain has perished on every side. No craftsmen work, the enemies of the land have spoilt its crafts. Gold and lapus lazuli, silver and malachite, camelian and bronze . His evaluation has been criticized on the basis that Ipuwer describes an over all breakdown of Egyptian society, and that the parallels to the plagues and the plundering of Egypt the night before the Exodus are not the central point of his composition.