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Apocryphal Prayer Fragments — Source Text

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

The Hebrew of 4Q454–4Q455, line by line as Qimron prints it. The English translation, printed with this same Hebrew, is on the page Apocryphal Prayer Fragments.

Source Text: תפילה (4Q454) ו־4Q455

The Hebrew as printed in Qimron, vol. 3, p. 192. 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. Line numbers follow the edition.

4Q454 קטע 1

1 [ ]םׄ

2 [ בי]מׄ[י]ןׄ צדקכה

3 [ מופתים ]בׄארץ חם ונגועי

4 [מחלים במצרים]

5 [ ]בׄיא מלואׄ◦◦[ ]

6 [ ותאכילנו ל]ח֯ם במדׄ[בר ]

7 [ ]◦תם ל[ ]

8 [ ]◦◦[ ]

4Q455 קטע 1

1 [ ]ת֯ר֯ב֯ה ברכׄת֯וׄ ◦◦[ ]◦[ ]

2 [ ] בכלׄ אמ֯נׄה הגידו את ◦[ ]

3 [ ]מׄשקר ירחק֯ מׄהׄזכירוׄ [ ]

4 [ ]לׄ[ ]

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. 192. Qimron's introductions: 4Q454 ("Prayer") is a single fragment in a Herodian hand; 4Q455 (no title) is a single fragment in a Hasmonean hand. First edition: Esther Chazon, DJD XXIX, p. 405 (4Q454), and DJD XXXVI, p. 351 (4Q455).

Qimron's notes, in brief:

  • 4Q454, line 2: "[with] your righteous [ri]ght hand" is his own new reading, after Isaiah 41:10, "I have also held you up with my righteous right hand".
  • 4Q454, line 3: "[wonders]" is restored after Psalm 105:27, "and wonders in the land of Ham". In wngwʿy the waw is clearly written.
  • 4Q454, line 6: completed after Exodus 16:32, "the bread that I fed you in the wilderness".
  • 4Q455, line 1: "his blessing will increase" is his own new reading; compare Proverbs 28:20, "a faithful man has many blessings".
  • 4Q455, line 2: the reading 'mnh, "faithfulness", is a problem, because the mem looks like a kaf, but what is written in line 3 calls for it.
  • 4Q455, line 3: Chazon points to Exodus 23:7, "keep far from a false word". mhzkyrw means "from letting it be heard in his mouth".

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