The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English
Page 47
Fr. 8
[For the Master]. Second [S]ong to frighten those who terrify him...
Fr. 18
II I have hated all the works of impurity. For God has caused the knowledge of understanding to shine in my heart. Just chastisers (deal) with my perversity, and faithful judges with all my sinful guilt. For God is my judge and by the hand of a stranger [He] shall not ...
Frs. 28-9
... [they shall] rejoice in God with jubilation. And I [will thank Th]ee for, because of Thy glory, Thou hast [s]et knowledge on my foundations of dust to pr[aise Thee].... out of a shape [of clay] was I moulded and from darkness was I kneaded... and iniquity is in the limbs of my flesh ...
Fr. 30
Thou hast sealed... the [e]arth ... and they are deep. [The heavens and the heavens of the] heavens, and the abysses and the dar[k places of the earth] ... Thou, O my God, hast sealed them all and there is none to open (them) ... Does one measure by the hollow of a human hand the waters of the great (ocean)? Are [the heavens estimated by the span (of fingers)? In one third (of a measure)] can any contain the dust of the earth, and weigh the mountains in a balance, or the hills in scal[es]? Man did not make these. How can he measure the spirit of [God]?
Fr. 35
... God in all flesh, and an avenging judgement to destroy wickedness, and for the raging anger of God towards those seven times refined. God shall sancti[fy] (some) of the holy as an everlasting sanctuary for himself, and purity shall endure among the cleansed. They shall be priests, his righteous people, his host, servants, the angels of his glory. They shall praise him with marvellous prodigies. I, I spread the fear of God in the ages of my generations to exalt the name ... [to terrify] by his might al[l] the spirits of the ‘bastards’, subduing them by [his] fear...
Frs. 63-4
II ... I will bless Thy name and in my appointed periods I will recount Thy marvels and I will engrave them as precepts of Thy glory’s praises. At the beginning of every thought of a knowing heart and (with) the offering of that which flows from the righteous lips when ready for all true worship and with all...
Fr. 63
III As for me, my tongue shall extol Thy righteousness, for Thou hast released it. Thou hast placed on my lips a fount of praise and in my heart the secret of the commencement of all human actions and the completion of the deeds of the perfect of way and the judgements regarding all the service done by them, justifying the just by Thy truth and condemning the wicked for their guilt. To announce peace to all the men of the Covenant and to utter a dreadful cry of woe for all those who breach it ... IV May they bless all Thy works always and blessed be Thy name for ever and ever. Amen, amen.
Beatitudes
(4Q525)
The title given to this piece of wisdom poetry, consisting of fifty mostly small fragments palaeographically dated to the second half of the first century BCE, derives from the repeated use of ‘Blessed’ (’ashre), modelled on Ps. i, 1, and recalling the Beatitudes of the New Testament (Matth. v, 3-11). The main structural difference between Matthew and 4Q525 lies in that the former each time lists the reward of the virtue for which people are blessed, whereas the Cave 4 text provides ordinary, mostly antithetic, parallelisms instead.
For the editio princeps, see E. Puech, DJD, XXV, 115-78.
Fr. 2
II [Blessed is] ... with a pure heart
and does not slander with his tongue.
Blessed are those who hold to her (Wisdom’s) precepts
and do not hold to the ways of iniquity.
Blessed are those who rejoice in her,
and do not burst forth in ways of folly.
Blessed are those who seek her with pure hands,
and do not pursue her with a treacherous heart.
Blessed is the man who has attained Wisdom,
and walks in the Law of the Most High.
He directs his heart towards her ways,
and restrains himself by her corrections,
and always takes delight in her chastisements.
He does not forsake her when he sees distress,
nor abandon her in time of strain.
He will not forget her [on the day of] fear,
and will not despise [her] when his soul is afflicted.
For always he will meditate on her,
and in his distress he will consider [her?]
...
[He will place her] before his eyes,
so as not to walk in the ways of [folly].
...
Fr. 5
...
[Do not] forsake your [inheri]tance [to the nations]
nor your portion to strangers...
For the wise... will instruct with sweetness.
Those who [f]ear God observe her (Wisdom’s) ways
and walk in [all] her precepts
and do not reject her corrections.
The intelligent will bring out...
[and all] those who walk in perfection
will turn aside injustice,
but they will not reject her admonitions
and will carry [her] ...
The sensible will recognize her ways
[and meditate on (?)] her depths.
... will look.
Those who love God will withdraw to it (Wisdom) ...
Fr. 14 ii
II... your feet will [walk] in an open place and you will advance on the high grou[nd of] your [e]nemy.
[You will love God with all your heart and with all] your soul, and He will deliver you from all evil.
Terror will not come upon you... He will make you inherit.
He will fill your days with good and you will w[alk] in great peace
... you will inherit glory.
And you will end up in the eternal resting place...
And all who know you will walk together following your teaching;
... will mourn together and will remember you in your ways.
For you were g[ood] ...
And now, listen to me, O man of understanding,
And let your mind be attentive to the utter[ances of my lips].
Allow knowledge to enter your heart (literally: belly) ...
Express [your] utterances with just humility [and] give [not] ...
[Do not] turn against the words of your friend so that he will not... to you.
Answer as is proper to him who listens to you.
Beware...
[Do not] pour out your thought before you have heard their words... greatly.
First listen to their utterance and afterwards answer ... [With long-]suffering express them and answer correctly among princes.
... with your lips and a stumbling block of the tongue.
Beware greatly... lest you are caught by your lips
As well as ensnared by [your] tongue ... ... unseemly words... from me and were twisted...
F. Bible Interpretation
‘The Targum of Job’, Israel Antiquities Authority
Introductory Note
Five types of biblical commentary have been recovered from the Qumran caves.
The first and least developed form of exegesis is contained in the so-called ‘Reworked Pentateuch’ texts, consisting of a quasi-traditional text of the Bible, occasionally rearranged and supplemented. To this category belong 4Q158, 364-7, 422, 382, etc. The Temple Scroll (11Q19-20) may also be assigned to this group, as well as the fairly, though not strictly, literal Aramaic translations or Targums of the Hebrew Scriptures (4Q156-7; 11Q10), to which should be added some small fragments of the Greek Bible from Caves 4 and 7.
The second type, represented by the Genesis Apocryphon, sets out to render the Bible story more intelligible and attractive by giving it more substance, by reconciling conflicting statements, and by reinterpreting in the light of contemporary standards and beliefs any passages which might seem to give offence. In a somewhat similar manner, a Commentary on Genesis from Cave 4 (4Q252) attempts to adjust the chronology of the Flood to the specific sectar
ian calendar of the Qumran Community.
The third type of commentary departs from the biblical text and, relying on one or several passages, creates a new story. Among others, the Admonition associated with the Flood (4Q370, 185), the Words of Moses (1Q22), the New Jerusalem texts (4Q554-5, 5Q15, etc.) and the Prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242), inspired by Genesis, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel and Daniel respectively, come into this category.
The fourth and most characteristic form of exegesis applies prophetic texts to the past, present and future of the sect. Normally the commentator expounds a biblical book verse by verse, e.g. Isaiah (4Q161-4); Nahum (4Q169); Habakkuk (1QpHab); the Psalms (4Q171, 173), etc., but some works - A Midrash on the Last Days (4Q174), The Heavenly Prince Melchizedek (11Q13), etc. - follow the traditional Jewish example and assemble passages from different parts of Scripture in order to develop a common theme.
Finally, a substantial amount of free compositions modelled on the Bible, e.g. Jubilees (4Q216-28), Enoch and the Giants (4Q201-12, 530-33), or circulating together with the Bible, e.g. the Para-Danielic fragments (4Q243-5), and works attributed to Noah (1Q19, etc.), the Patriarchs Levi (4Q213-14, 537-41), Moses (4Q374-7, 390), and many others constitute a fifth category of exegesis. In one way, the Aramaic and Hebrew manuscripts of one of the Apocrypha, the Book of Tobit (4Q196-200), pertain to this class.
Aramaic Bible Translations
(Targums)
Two books of the Hebrew Bible have survived in Aramaic translation in the Qumran caves. A small scroll, found in Cave 11 and measuring 109 cm, has preserved in Aramaic a large portion of the last seven chapters of the Book of Job. Twenty-seven smaller fragments cover parts of Job xvii, 14 to xxxvi, 33. This text, together with small remains from Cave 4 of Leviticus (4Q156=xvi, 12-21, see below) and of another manuscript of Job (4Q157=iii, 5-9; iv, 16-v, 4), represent the oldest extant Aramaic renderings of the Hebrew Bible. The translation of Job frequently differs from the customary text of the Hebrew Bible, but it is unclear whether the divergences are due merely to the difficulty of translating poetry, or to a Hebrew original not identical with the traditional Scripture.
Hebrew Jobxl, 12
Look on every one that is proud and bring him low; and tread down the wicked where they stand.
11 Qar Job
And every proud spirit you will smash; and extinguish the wicked below them.
It is clear, on the other hand, that the prose narrative of xlii, 9-11 displays notable departures from the text known to us, as may be seen from the following parallel translations:
Hebrew Job xlii
(9) So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. (10) And the Lord restored the
11 Qar Job
(9)... God. God heard the voice of Job and forgave them (his friends’) their sins because of him. (10) And God returned fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. (11) Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house; and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money (or: sheep) and a ring of gold. to Job with mercy and doubled all that he had owned. (11) All his friends, brothers and acquaintances came to Job and they ate bread with him in his house, and they comforted him for all the misery that God had brought on him and each gave him a ewe-lamb and a ring of gold.
The English version provided below (Job xxxvii, 11 to xlii, 11) should therefore be read side by side with the translation of the canonical Job. It will be noticed that Job xxxix, 24 is missing from the Aramaic and xlii, 3 is replaced by xl, 5. Furthermore, in Job xxxviii, 7 the phrase ‘angels’ is substituted for ‘sons of God‘, a doctrinally suspect expression since Jews rejected the idea of God having children. The same substitution is found in the Greek Septuagint and the Targum of Job used in rabbinic Judaism. Similarly the Targum to Lev. xvi, 14 and xvi, 20 (4Q156) specifies, as do the later Targums, that ‘the Holy’ designates ‘the House of Holiness’ or ‘Sanctuary’. In short, the Qumran Targums prefigure to some extent the style of the later Targums without attesting, however, the exegetical expansions which characterize the Palestinian Targums to the Pentateuch.
For the editio princeps of 11Q10, see J. P. M. van der Ploeg et al., Le Targum de Job de la grotte XI de Qumrân (Leiden, 1971); for a new edition, see F. Garcia Martinez, E. J. C. Tigchelaar and A. S. van der Woude, DJD, XXIII, 79-180. For the Targums of Leviticus and Job (4Q156, 157), see J. T. Milik, DJD, VI, 85-91.
The Targum of Job
(11Q10,4Q157)
XXVIII (Job xxxvii, 24-30)
(24) [Re]member that His works which they see are great.
(25) Every man looks at Him,
and the sons of men from afar search for Him.
(26) Behold, God is great,
and His days are numerous beyond knowledge
and the sum of His years is infinite.
(27) Behold, [He counts] the [rain] clouds
and He establishes the downpours.
(28) And His clouds let down dr[ops of water
on] a multitude of people.
(29) If He who spreads [the] cl[ouds] of His thunder
and spreads [His] light [... and co]vers.
For by them He judges peoples...
XXIX (Job xxxvii)
(11) With it (water) He wipes the cloud[s],
and brings fire out of the cloud.
(12) He speaks and they listen to Him
and proceed with their works.
He appoints them over all
that He has created on earth:
(13) either for striking or for (benefiting) the
earth;
either for famine or shortage;
or for something good to be on it.
(14) Listen to this, Job, and arise!
Observe the might of God.
(15) [Do you] know what God has put on them
and how He has made light to shine from the cloud?
(16) [Do you k]now how to robe the cloud with
mi[ght]?
(17) Because your robe ...
For He possesses knowledge...
(18) [Do you know how to] beat the cloud
[to] compress [it into a mir]ror?
(19) He knows...
XXX (Job xxxviii)
(3) Please gird [your] lo[ins] like a man,
[and I will que]stion you and you will answer me.
(4) Where were you when I made the earth?
Explain it to me if you possess wisdom.
(5) Do you know who fixed its measures?
Who stretched a line over it?
(6) Or to what were its foundations joined
or who set its cut stone
(7) when the morning stars were shining together
and all the angels of God exclaimed together?
(8) Can you shut in the sea with gates
when it bursts forward from the womb of the abyss,
(9) when the clouds were made into its robe
and the haze its swaddling-clothes.
(10) Can you set boundaries to it ... ?
(11) Did you say, Up to here!
And you must not go beyond... [your wa]ves.
(12) In your days did you order [the morning]
(13)... the win[gs] of the ear[th] ...
XXXI (23)...
for the day of battle and revolt.
(24) ... from where will (the wind) go out
and will it blow before Him on the earth?
(25) Who fixed a time for the rain
and a path for the quick clouds
(26) to bring it (the rain) down to a land of wilderness
with no man on it,
(27) to satiate the low-lying and isolated (places)
to produce sprouting grass.
(28) Has the rain a father
; and who begets the mist of dew?
(29) And from whose womb did ice come out
...
(30) The waters contracted like a st[one] because of
Him,
and the face of the ab[yss?] ...
(31)... Pleiades or the fence of Orion ...
XXXII (Job xxxix)
(1) the mountain goats, and the birth p[angs] ...
(2) ... their months are completed,
and do you know when they give birth,
(3) delivering their young and ejecting them,
and do you send away their birth pangs?
(4) They raise their young and make them go;
they depart and do not come back to them.
(5) Who has set the wild ass free
and who has loosed the onager’s rope,
(6) to whom I gave the desert for his home
and made the salty land his dwelling.