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The Woe Prophecy (2Q23) — Source Text

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2Q23 — Cave 2, Qumran

Hebrew transcription of 2Q23, included in the Qimron composite edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020). The manuscript font encoding in the Qimron PDF renders the body text largely opaque; the source text below preserves only apparatus-confirmed readings. Line 10 is a verbatim quotation of Daniel 11:44. All lacunae are marked with brackets.

Fragment 1, Column i — Apparatus-Confirmed Readings

Line 3: כלה אוכלת בשר שגיא — consuming plague devouring much flesh

Line 5: תבטחו בחרב וחיה — you trust in sword and beast

Line 6: תדחפון מן אבן פתח — you will be thrust from the stone gate

Line 7: יקראתכם תחת שאול / שעיריה מלאה — Sheol will call you / full of its goat-demons

Line 8: והתהללתם בעצביכם — you have boasted in your idols

Line 9: ממזרח ומצפון הנה יבוא — from east and from north, behold it comes

Line 10: ושמועות יבהלהו ממזרח ומצפון = Daniel 11:44 verbatim
יכשלון ברכים — knees shall buckle
בשברון מתנים — with shattering of loins
ומשברון רוח תילילו — from anguish of spirit you shall wail

Line 11: ונפלו חללים רבים — many slain shall fall

Fragment 1, Column ii — Legible Readings

Line 3: שוממים — desolations

Notes on Key Vocabulary

  • שעיריה (its goat-demons, line 7): From שָׂעִיר, "he-goat / goat-spirit / demon." Cf. Isaiah 13:21 (שְׂעִירִים ירקדו שם — goat-spirits will dance there, in the Babylon oracle). The suffix -ָהּ is third-person feminine singular (referring to Sheol). The image: Sheol is like ruined Babylon — full of demonic goat-spirits.

  • תדחפון מן אבן פתח (line 6): "You will be thrust from the stone gate." Apparatus variant: תגחון מן אבן פתח. The "stone gate" may be a reference to the city gate or the gate of the underworld.

  • ושמועות יבהלהו (line 10): Verbatim quotation of Daniel 11:44 — the verse describing alarming reports from east and north that alarm the end-times king of the north. The use of this verse in 2Q23 is a terminus post quem for composition (no earlier than 167 BCE, when Daniel 11 was completed).

  • כלה (line 3): "Consuming / annihilating." Combined with אוכלת בשר שגיא (devouring much flesh), this evokes the consuming fire and plague imagery of Deuteronomy 32 and Ezekiel 39.

Source: Hebrew. Cave 2, Qumran. DJD III (Baillet, Milik, de Vaux, 1962), pp. 80–81. Qimron composite edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0).

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