"Arise! Against them in the multitude of your strength."
— 4Q501, Fragment 1

4Q501 — Apocryphal Lamentations B — Dead Sea Scrolls

The Apocryphal Lamentations B (4Q501) is a Cave 4 Hebrew prayer in the communal lament genre. It opens with a direct petition against dispossession — Do not give our inheritance to foreigners — drawn from the language of Lamentations 5:2. The prayer then turns to its central catalogue: the sons of the covenant who have been driven out, the wanderers with no one to bring them back, the broken with no one to bind them up, the bent with no one to raise them up.

This is the vocabulary of Isaiah 1:6 and Jeremiah 30:13 — the wound undressed, the bruise untended — transformed into a communal petition. The lament does not simply mourn; it names the wound in order to call God to action. The prayer's final movement rises to Arise! — the ancient battle-cry of Numbers 10:35, here directed against the enemies who surrounded the community with lies and sought the lives of the poor.

The phrase sons of your covenant (בני בריתכה) is characteristic Qumranic address — this is not a lament over Israel in general but over specific members of the covenant community who have scattered or been expelled. The phrase warriors surrounded us with a lying tongue (סבבונו חילכיאה בלשון שקר) speaks to active persecution, not simply misfortune. And the final lines — they sought the life of the poor, they did not set your name before them, they prevailed over the poor and needy — echo Psalm 10:2–8, the portrait of the wicked who oppress the humble. The prayer ends not in resignation but in petition.

4Q501 shares vocabulary with the Festival Prayers (4Q509) and with the Lament of Zion (4Q179). The lament and the praise are mirror texts. 4Q501 names the wound. 4Q509 names the healer.

The text was published by Maurice Baillet in Qumrân grotte 4: III (4Q482–4Q520), DJD VII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982), pp. 79–80.

Fragment 1

Do not give our inheritance to foreigners,
nor let it reach the children of strangers.
Remember, for [...]

[...] your people,
and those forsaken of your inheritance —
remember the sons of your covenant who are desolate,
and all the people of your counsel.

The banished —
wanderers, with none to bring them back.
The broken —
with none to bind them up.
The bent —
with none to raise them up.
[...]

Warriors surrounded us with a lying tongue
and overturned [...]

[...] your glory —
look, and see the reproach of the sons born of woman.

For your covenant was stirred with compassion.
[...]
Terrors seized us
before the tongue of their blasphemies.
O God —

[Give] them no portion at all.
[...]
Let their seed not be [among the sons of the covenant].

Arise!
[...]
Against them, in the multitude of your strength —
act against them.

For they sought the life of the poor.
They did not set your name before them,
and they prevailed over the poor and the needy.

Colophon

Apocryphal Lamentations B (4Q501 — 4QApocrLamB)
Qumran Cave 4. Hebrew. Herodian period, approximately 50 BCE–70 CE.

Translated from the Hebrew by a DSS Tulku of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026. Hebrew transcription after Elisha Qimron, The Qumran Texts — Composite Edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0, 2020). Editio princeps: Maurice Baillet, Qumrân grotte 4: III (4Q482–4Q520), DJD VII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982), pp. 79–80.

The opening petition Do not give our inheritance to foreigners (אל תתן לזרים נחלתנו) alludes to Lamentations 5:2. The formula ואין משיב (with none to bring them back) and ואין חובש (with none to bind them up) echo Isaiah 1:6 and Jeremiah 30:13. The phrase בני בריתכה (sons of your covenant) is characteristic Qumranic address. The final petition Arise! (קום) echoes Numbers 10:35. The portrait of enemies who sought the life of the poor echoes Psalm 10:2–8. Key readings confirmed against NewPeninimMT Unicode text in the Qimron Composite Edition. The Hebrew was decoded from the Miqdas Type1 font using a reverse-engineered character map (old Mac Hebrew visual encoding with per-word byte-reversal).

Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026.

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Source Text: 4Q501 — אפוקריפון קינות ב

Hebrew transcription after Elisha Qimron, The Qumran Texts — Composite Edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0, 2020). Decoded from Miqdas Type1 font (old Mac Hebrew visual encoding); per-word byte-reversal applied to convert visual to logical order. Key phrases confirmed against NewPeninimMT Unicode text in the same document. All lacunae marked [...].

Line 1:  אל תתן לזרים נחלתנו ויגיענו לבני נכר זכור כיא [...]
Line 2:  [...] עמכה ועזובי נחלתכה זכור בני בריתכה השוממים
Line 3:  וכול אנשי עצתכ המנודחים תועים ואין משיב שבורים ואין חובש
Line 4:  וכפופים ואין [...] סבבונו חילכיאה בלשון שקרמה ויהפכו
Line 5:  [...] ופארתכה לילוד אשה הביטה וראה חרפת בני
Line 6:  כיא נכמר בריתכה [...] וזלעפות אחזונו מלפני לשון גדופיהם אל
Line 7:  [אל] תתן להמה כול חלק [...] ואל יהיה זרעמה [מבני ברית]
Line 8:  קום [...] אליהמה בהמון כוחכה ועשה בהמה
Line 9:  כיא בקשו נפש עניי
Line 10: ולוא שמוכה לנגדמה ויתגברו על עני ואביון

Source Colophon

4Q501 (4QApocrLamB). Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Fragment. Published: Maurice Baillet, Qumrân grotte 4: III (4Q482–4Q520), DJD VII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982), pp. 79–80. Transcription after Elisha Qimron, The Qumran Texts — Composite Edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0, 2020). Hebrew decoded from Miqdas Type1 custom font encoding using reverse-engineered Mac Hebrew character map; per-word byte-reversal converts visual to logical order. Verification against NewPeninimMT Unicode readings in the same document confirms accuracy of decoding. All lacunae marked [...]. The opening line echoes Lamentations 5:2; confirmed by NewPeninimMT variant reading נחלתנו נהפכה לזרים. The reading המנודחים (banished) confirmed by Unicode variant; Miqdas primary text reads המנודבים (variant spelling).

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