Light shone over Jacob, and illuminated Zion, and he remembered [...] the period of darkness has gone and the period of light has arrived, and they will rule for ever.
(Nineteen lines of a single fragment. Fragment 1 is shared between manuscripts 4Q462 and 4Q467 — the manuscripts overlap. The text is too lacunose in places for continuous prose, but its sustained theological arc is legible.)
[...] ... [...]
[... Shem,] Ham and Japheth [...]
[... and light shone] over Jacob,
and he il[luminated Zi]on,
and he remembered [...]
[... the nations to Israe[l]. And then they will say: Where [...]
[...] ... empty-handed we went, for taking [...]
[...] for slaves for Jacob, with love.
[...] to many as an inheritance — the LORD who governs [...]
[...] his glory that at once fills the waters and the earth [...]
[... and the fullness of the] kingdom is with him alone.
The light was with them, and over us there was [...]
[... the peri]od of darkness has gone,
and the period of light has arrived.
And they will rule for ever.
Therefore [t]he[y] will say:
[...] to [I]srael, for in the midst of us was the people of the beloved, Jac[ob ...]
[...] their [...] and they served and endured
and they cried out to the LORD,
and [they were heard ...]
[...] And then they were delivered up to Egypt a second time
in the period of the kingdom, and [t]he[y] en[dured ...]
[... the inhab]itants of Philistia and of Egypt for spoil and devastation [...]
[...] to set wickedness on high,
so that it would contract unclean[ness ...]
[...] and the hardness of her face will change into brilliance —
her menstruation, her clothes [...]
[...] and what she did to her,
so will be the uncleanness of [...]
[...] she [was] loathed as she was before she was built [...]
[...] And he will remember {Jerusalem} [...]
Colophon
Text: 4Q462 (4QNarrative Ca), Cave 4. Fragment 1 contains nineteen lines and is paralleled by 4Q467 (Cave 4; same manuscript tradition). Published by M.S. Smith in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XIX (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), pp. 195–209, pl. XXVI.
The text is structured around a contrast between darkness and light — cosmological categories that the author applies to the history of God's people. The opening lines invoke the Table of Nations (Shem, Ham, Japheth — Genesis 10) as the backdrop of world history, then narrows to Jacob/Israel and the illumination of Zion. The phrase "light shone over Jacob and illuminated Zion" (ויזרח אור ליעקוב ויאיר על ציון) echoes Deutero-Isaiah (Isa 60:1–3: "Arise, shine; for your light has come") and numbers 24:17 (the star from Jacob). The LORD's glory "filling the waters and the earth" echoes Isaiah 6:3 and Numbers 14:21.
The central theological declaration (lines 10–11) is stark: the period of darkness has ended and the period of light has arrived — the sectarian dualistic periodization familiar from the Community Rule (1QS III–IV) expressed here in historical-narrative terms. The community that "ruled for ever" is almost certainly the elect community itself.
The historical reversal in lines 13–14 — "delivered up to Egypt a second time" — introduces a typological re-reading of exile as a second Egyptian bondage. This reading appears also in the Damascus Document's periodization (CD III). The judgment against Philistia and Egypt in line 14 situates the current generation within an ongoing sequence of imperial judgments.
Lines 16–18 are remarkable: the feminine subject ("she," "her face," "her clothes") almost certainly refers to Jerusalem personified as a woman — the tradition of Ezekiel 16 and Lamentations 1. Her "hardness of face" that "will change into brilliance" inverts the vocabulary of shame; the reference to menstruation (niddah) and clothing draws on Ezekiel 16:8–14 (the clothed and adorned Jerusalem) as well as the prophetic image of restoration after defilement. Line 18's "she was loathed as she was before she was built" implies a return to the primordial state, before the beloved city existed, as the zero-point of restoration.
Translation: Good Works Translation from Hebrew by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Hebrew transcription consulted in García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–1999), vol. 2, pp. 940–941. The divine name YHWH appears in the manuscript in a special form (represented as **** in the DSSE); rendered as "the LORD" throughout. All lacunae marked [...]; restored text in brackets follows the DSSE editors. Braces { } indicate scribal correction.
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Source Text
4Q462 — Hebrew Fragment 1 (= 4Q467)
Hebrew transcription from García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2, pp. 940–941 (Brill, 1997–1999). Square brackets indicate lacunae or restorations. Asterisks (**) represent the divine name in the manuscript's special script. Braces { } indicate scribal correction.
[…].[…] 1
[… ] ]… את שם וא[ת חם ואת יפת 2
]…[ל ויזרח אור[ ליעקוב ויא]יר על צי[ון ויזכור 3
vacat
[…] ויזרח אור[ ליעקוב ויא]יר על צי[ון ויזכור 4
[… בכן יאמר]ו איפה 5
[… ] ]…[.ים ריקמה הלכנו כי לוקח 6
לעבדים ליעקוב בא 7
ה ]…[..תנה לרבים לנחלה **** המ 7
[… ב]ה שלו ]…9 8
[… ] ]…[. כבודו אשר מאחד ימלא את המים ואת הארץ 8
ומ[ל]ו[את הממ ש ]… 9
[… ]לה לבדו עמו היה האור עמהם ועלינו היה 10
]…[ 11
[… עבר ק[ץ החושך וקץ האור בא ומשלו לעולם על כן יואמר]ו 11
]…[יהםה ויעבודו 12
[… [ל]י[שראל כי נתוכנו היה עם החביב יעק]וב 12
]…[ 13
[…]ויתקימו ויזעקו אל **** 13
vacat והנה נתנו במצרים שנית 13
]… יו[שבי פלשת ומצרים לבזה וחורבה 14
[… בקץ ממלכה ויתקי]מו 14
]…[מיר לרומם לרשע בעבור תקבל טמ]אה …[ 15
[…] }י{ועמודיה 15
]…[ה ועז פניה יתשנה בזיוה ועדה ובגדיה 16
[… ]…[.ים ואת אשר 17
]… נ[שנאתה כאשר היתה לפני הבנותה 18
[…].עשתה לה כן טמאת הע ]…[ 18
]…[ 19
vacat
[…]. ויזכור את }ישרו{ ירושלם 19
Notes
Line 2: שם / חם / יפת = Shem, Ham, Japheth — the Table of Nations framework (Genesis 10). The text situates its theology within universal history before narrowing to Israel.
Line 3–4: ויזרח אור ליעקוב ויאיר על ציון = "light shone over Jacob and illuminated Zion." Echoes Isaiah 60:1–3 and the star oracle of Numbers 24:17.
Line 7: **** = the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), written in a special script in the manuscript and represented as asterisks in the DSSE. הַמּ- = "who governs / who rules."
Lines 10–11: Period language — the dualistic periodization of light and darkness, found in the Community Rule (1QS III–IV) applied here to historical narrative.
Line 13: "Delivered up to Egypt a second time" — typological re-reading of exile as a second Exodus/Egypt narrative, found also in the Damascus Document (CD III).
Lines 16–18: Feminine subject — Jerusalem personified as a woman. עז פנים = "hardness of face" (shamelessness); ועדה ובגדיה = "her jewels and her clothes" — the restored garments of Ezekiel 16:8–14; נדה = menstrual impurity; association with Ezekiel 16 and Lamentations.
Line 19: }ישרו{ = "Jerusalem" with ישרו struck through — the scribe wrote ישרו (?) and corrected it to ירושלם.
Source Colophon
Source: Hebrew. Cave 4, Qumran. DJD XIX (M.S. Smith, 1995). Transcription: García Martínez and Tigchelaar, DSSE (1997–1999), vol. 2.
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