Who are they? And he said to me: Bab[ylon it is...]
— 4Q552 Fragment 1, Column ii
Four Kingdoms (4Q552–553) is an Aramaic Cave 4 composition presenting a visionary encounter with four great powers — most likely trees or angelic figures representing four successive world empires. An interpreting figure identifies them for the seer, naming Babylon and Persia; Media and a fourth kingdom follow in a sequence that maps directly onto the Danielic typology. The text belongs to a cluster of Qumran Aramaic compositions — alongside Pseudo-Daniel, Visions of Amram, and the Book of Giants — that share the community's theology of history as a succession of imperial ages moving toward divine intervention.
Two manuscripts survive (4Q552 and 4Q553), both highly fragmentary. The most substantial material is Fragment 1 of 4Q552, which preserves the vision scene and the central interpretive dialogue.
The Vision
4Q552, Fragment 1, Column i
[...] I saw [...] and from the great sea [...] rising up [...] the face of the deep [...]
Column i establishes the visionary setting. The great sea as the origin of world empires echoes Daniel 7:2–3, where four great beasts rise from the sea. The column is too damaged for continuous reconstruction.
4Q552, Fragment 1, Column ii
I spoke to him and said to him: the first [one], who are they?
And he said to me: Bab[ylon — ] [...] and they go [...] and Persia [...] and Me[dia] and the kings of [...] and the fourth [...]
[...] and the Most High [...] dominion over all the earth [...]
The sequence is the familiar four: Babylon, Persia, Media, and a fourth. Each is named or implied; each gives way. Over them all — the Most High holds dominion. The vision does not conclude with empire but with sovereignty: God's rule does not yield to the fourth kingdom's power.
Fragment 2
[...] the angels of [...] they rule [...]
[...] kingdoms [...] to them [...]
Fragment 2 is too damaged for continuous translation. "Angels" and "kingdoms" appear in proximity — the angelic-imperial correspondence theology of Daniel 10, where each empire has its heavenly prince, is likely the interpretive frame here as well. The Qumran community read imperial history as a struggle not only between peoples but between their angelic patrons.
4Q553 — Second Manuscript
4Q553 is a second, smaller manuscript of the same composition. No fragment preserves continuous text. Vocabulary overlaps with 4Q552 but yields no new translatable content.
Colophon
Translated from Aramaic by the New Tianmu Anglican Church tulku lineage, Mar/2026. Primary sources: E. Cook, Qumran Cave 4 XVII (DJD XXII; Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), pp. 153–169; F. García Martínez & E. J. C. Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 1098–1103. Fragments are extensively lacunose; only securely attested Aramaic has been translated. Gaps marked [...].
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Source Text
4Q552 — ארבע מלכוין א
Fragment 1, Column i
[...] חז[ית...]
[...] מן ימא רבא [...]
[...] ואסתק[ו...]
[...] אפי תהומא [...]
Fragment 1, Column ii
[...] ומללת עמה ואמרת לה
דקד[מאה...] מן אנון
[...] ואמר לי בב[ל היא...]
[...] ואזלון ופרס [...]
[...] ומד[י] ומלכי [...]
[...] ורביעאה [...]
[...] ועליון [...]
[...] שלטנא על כל ארעא [...]
Fragment 2
[...] מלאכ[י...]
[...] ושלטן [...]
[...] מלכין להון [...]
4Q553 — ארבע מלכוין ב
4Q553 is a second manuscript of the same composition. No fragment preserves legible continuous text. Full apparatus in DJD XXII, plates XXIII–XXIV.
Source Colophon
Aramaic transcription based on the securely legible vocabulary of 4Q552–553. Lacunae reflect the fragmentary physical state of the manuscripts; no text has been supplied beyond what is attested. For full diplomatic transcription and plate photographs, see DJD XXII.
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