Balaam, the son of Beor — the prophet who was in Bethel — Zedekiah ben Kenaanah — Ahab ben Kolaiah — Hananiah ben Azzur.
— 4Q339, fragment 1
4Q339 is a single Cave 4 Hebrew fragment preserving a list of biblical false prophets. It is one of the shortest texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus — eight lines, primarily proper names — and one of the most distinctive. Where other Qumran compilations gather proof-texts for the coming messiah or the community's election (Testimonia, Florilegium, Tanhumim), 4Q339 gathers proof-texts for failure: named individuals from the Hebrew scriptures whose prophecy was false, whose word led Israel astray, whose legacy the community held as a warning.
The scholarly consensus identifies five names securely. Each corresponds to a known biblical episode. The list moves roughly in canonical order — from the wilderness generation through the divided monarchy and into the exile — presenting the Hebrew Bible's false prophets as a continuous lineage: those who spoke without divine commission, who lied for hire, who used the prophetic mantle to serve rival interests. At Qumran, the concern with false prophecy was not merely historical. The community's foundational conflict — the Teacher of Righteousness against the Wicked Priest — was understood through the lens of the true prophet persecuted by the false establishment. This list gave that conflict deep scriptural roots.
The genre places 4Q339 alongside 4Q175 Testimonia (messianic proof-texts) and 4Q252 Commentary on Genesis A (prophetic interpretation). Together they represent the Qumran community's distinctive practice of assembling biblical anthologies — but where Testimonia assembles quotations from true prophecy, 4Q339 assembles names from false prophecy.
The List
Balaam, Son of Beor
The archetype. Balaam of Pethor was hired by Balak king of Moab to curse Israel in the wilderness (Num 22–24). He could not: the words God placed in his mouth were blessing, not curse. But in subsequent tradition, Balaam became a symbol of prophecy for hire. Numbers 31:16 blames him for the apostasy at Baal Peor — he advised the Moabite women to entice Israel into idolatry when direct cursing failed. He taught Balak how to corrupt the people he could not curse. The New Testament confirms the tradition: Balaam "loved the wages of unrighteousness" (2 Pet 2:15), "taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel" (Rev 2:14). He is, in the sectarian imagination, the prophet whose gift was real and whose integrity was sold.
The Prophet of Bethel
The unnamed old prophet of Bethel (1 Kgs 13:11–32) is a strange and haunting figure. When the man of God from Judah came to Bethel to pronounce judgment on the northern altar and was explicitly forbidden by God to eat or stay, the old prophet of Bethel sought him out and deceived him. "I am also a prophet as you are," he said, "and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water." It was a lie. The man of God returned with him, ate, and was killed by a lion on the road. The text does not call the old prophet of Bethel a false prophet — but his lie sent a man of God to his death, and the Qumran community evidently read the episode as a case study in prophetic deception.
Zedekiah ben Kenaanah
At the council of Ahab before the battle of Ramoth-gilead, four hundred prophets spoke with one voice: "Go up, for the LORD will give it into the hand of the king." Their leader was Zedekiah ben Kenaanah, who made himself iron horns and announced: "With these you shall push the Arameans until you have destroyed them." When Micaiah ben Imlah spoke the contrary word — Ahab would die, Israel would scatter — Zedekiah struck him and asked: "Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?" (1 Kgs 22:11, 24). Ahab died. The four hundred were wrong. Zedekiah ben Kenaanah is the prophetic consensus that confirmed the king's desire and sent him to his death.
Ahab ben Kolaiah
Among the prophets in the Babylonian exile, two — Ahab ben Kolaiah and Zedekiah ben Maaseiah — were "speaking lies in my name," in the words of Jeremiah 29:21–23. The LORD declares: "I am delivering them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall strike them down before your eyes." They "have done an outrageous thing in Israel: they have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them." Their names became a byword of cursing: "May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire." The Qumran community would have known this text well; their own community lived under the specter of exile prophecy that had proven false.
Hananiah ben Azzur
The most dramatic confrontation in the prophetic literature. In the fourth year of Zedekiah, in the Temple, Hananiah ben Azzur of Gibeon stood before the priests and all the people and announced in the name of the LORD: "I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back all the vessels of the Temple, and Jeconiah the king, and all the exiles." Jeremiah responded without anger: "Amen — may the LORD do so; may he fulfill your words." But then: "The prophet who prophesies peace — when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet." Hananiah took Jeremiah's symbolic yoke-bar and broke it. Jeremiah left. Then came the word of the LORD: "You have broken wooden bars, but I will make in their place bars of iron." Hananiah died that same year — the seventh month (Jer 28:1–17). The false prophet who promised peace is the clearest warning in the tradition: the word that the people want to hear is not necessarily the word the LORD speaks.
Note on the Fragment
4Q339 is highly fragmentary. The five names given above are securely attested in the published editions. Line 1 is partially damaged at the left edge; lines 6–8 are too damaged for legible Hebrew. Whether the list continued beyond five names, or whether a sixth entry is partially preserved, is disputed in scholarship. No text has been inserted beyond what is attested.
The fragment belongs to Cave 4, Qumran. It preserves a single column of approximately 8–9 lines. The scribal hand is consistent with the late Second Temple period.
Colophon
Text: 4Q339 — List of False Prophets (ספר הנביאים השקרים)
Source: Qumran Cave 4
Language: Hebrew
Translation Method: Good Works Translation from Hebrew. The text consists primarily of proper names; the translation presents each name with scholarly identification of its biblical referent, drawing on the attested Hebrew from García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), and Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London: Penguin, 2004). The introductory paragraphs and biblical exposition represent NTAC commentary, not translation.
Translator: NTAC + Claude (Good Works Translation)
Scribe: DSS Tulku, New Tianmu Anglican Church, Mar/2026
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Source Text
Hebrew transcription of 4Q339, Fragment 1, following García Martínez and Tigchelaar (Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, Brill 1998). The text is a list of proper names; transliteration and biblical referents are provided for each legible entry. Lines 6–8 are too damaged for legible transcription.
01 [...] ב[לעם] בן בעור Balaam son of Beor (Num 22–24)
02 [...] הנביא [א]שר [ב]בית אל the prophet who was in Bethel (1 Kgs 13)
03 [...] צדקיהו בן כנענה Zedekiah ben Kenaanah (1 Kgs 22:11)
04 [...] אחאב בן קוליה Ahab ben Kolaiah (Jer 29:21)
05 [...] חנניה בן עזור Hananiah ben Azzur (Jer 28:1)
06 [lacunose]
07 [lacunose]
08 [lacunose]
Note: Lines 1–5 follow the scholarly consensus on the securely attested Hebrew names. Orthographic variants exist between editions; the above follows the MT-aligned readings as given in the DSSE. The left edge of the fragment is damaged throughout, producing the partial lacunae at the start of each line.
Source Colophon
4Q339 — Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Single fragment, approximately 8–9 lines. Published in the Dead Sea Scrolls scholarly editions. Transcription follows García Martínez and Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2 (Brill, 1998). The names are securely attested across editions (García Martínez & Tigchelaar, Vermes, Schiffman). Lines 6–8 are fragmentary beyond legible transcription.
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