The Hebrew of 4Q501, line by line as Qimron prints it. The English translation, printed with this same Hebrew, is on the page Apocryphal Lamentations B.
Source Text: תפילה לנקמה (4Q501)
The Hebrew as printed in Qimron, vol. 3, p. 231. Square brackets enclose gaps and Qimron's restorations. ◦ marks an illegible letter. A dot above a letter (ׄ) marks a damaged letter read with confidence, a small circle above (֯) a doubtful reading, and a bar above (̄) a letter that could also be read as a similar one. Carets enclose letters written above the line. An asterisk marks a word for which Qimron's notes give another reading. Line numbers follow the edition.
(שוליים עליונים)
1 [ ^◦◦◦^]יׄ אל תתן לזרים נחלתנו ויגיענו לבני נכר, זכור כיא
2 [אנו המה עצור]י עמכה ועזובי נחלתכה, זכור בני בריתכה השוממים
3 [וכול אנשי עצתכ]הׄ *המנודבים, תועים ואין משיב, שבורים ואין חובש
4 [וכפופים ואין זו]קפ סבבונו חילכיא עמכה בלשון שקרמה ויופכו
5 [למשחית את הודכ]ה ופארתכה לילוד אשה הביטה וראה חרפת בני
6 [בריתכה כיא נכמר ]עורנו וזלעוׄפות אחזונו מלפני לשון גדופיהמׄה אל
7 [תתן להמה כול חלק ]במצוותיכה ואל יהיה זרעמה *מבׄרׄיׄתׄ
8 [ קום] אליהמה בהמון כוחכה ועשה בהמה נקׄמ̄ה
9 [כיא בקשו נפש עניי]כׄהׄ ולוא שמוכה לנגדמה ויתגברו על עני ואביון
(שוליים תחתונים)
Source Colophon
Transcribed from the rendered page of the CC BY 4.0 composite edition (Zenodo, 2020) of Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, vol. 3 (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2015), p. 231. Qimron's introduction: a single fragment in a hand from the beginning of the Herodian period. The author recalls the abuses of the community's enemies, which wound not only the congregation but God as well: in his words, they take for themselves the glory that belongs to God. Kister has proposed a new interpretation of the fragment (Qimron cites it by the abbreviation ממ"ת, pp. 331–332). First edition: Maurice Baillet, Qumrân Grotte 4.III (4Q482–4Q520), DJD VII (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 79–80.
Qimron's notes, in brief:
- Line 1: with "Do not give our inheritance to strangers" compare Lamentations 5:2, "our inheritance has been turned over to strangers".
- Line 3: for hmnwdbym, "the volunteers", perhaps read hmnwdḥym, "the banished", as in the Festival Prayers, 4Q509 fragments 12+13, line 1 (vol. 2, p. 389), and Isaiah 8:22, "darkness driven away". The odd reading here may have arisen under the influence of the link with the congregation of the Community.
- Line 4: ḥylkyʾ is ḥelkaʾe, "tyrants, wicked ones" (citing Yalon, p. 37). wywpkw stands for wyhpkw, "and they turned", from the root ʾpk (citing Qimron's Grammar, p. 200).
- Line 5: the restoration follows Daniel 10:8, "my splendour was turned upon me to ruin". "Your beauty to one born of a woman" means that they turned God's glory into a glory of their own. For the construction compare Lamentations 5:2, "our inheritance has been turned over to strangers".
- Line 6: with "horror has seized us" compare Psalm 119:53 and the Hodayot 13:32 (vol. 1, p. 77). In gdwpyhmh the last two letters are corrected, and the correction may aim at the form gdwpyhm.
- Line 7: restored after the prayer for the sanctification of the day, "and give our portion in your Torah". wʾl yhyh stands where wʾal yehi would be expected. The word mbryt is corrected, perhaps from mbny bryt, "of the children of the covenant".
- Line 8: with "[Rise up] against them" compare Genesis 4:8. With "in the might of your strength" compare the Hodayot 11:35 (vol. 1, p. 73), "for God will thunder in the might of his strength".
- Line 9: with "did not set you before them" compare Psalms 54:5 and 86:14, "a band of tyrants have sought my life and have not set you before them".
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