And now, our God — the great God, the mighty and the awesome one, keeper of covenant and lovingkindness: Hear!

Introduction

4Q393 is a Cave 4 Hebrew manuscript preserving fragments of a communal confession prayer — a penitential liturgy in the tradition of Nehemiah 9, Daniel 9, and Psalm 106. It was found among the Cave 4 manuscripts during the 1952 excavations and published by Moshe Bernstein in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXIX (Oxford: Clarendon, 2002). The scroll overlaps and is reconstructed in composite with the closely related 4Q392 (Works of God).

The prayer moves through the classic structure of Second Temple penitential liturgy: creation recalled, Exodus recounted, sins confessed, sinners invited to return, covenant with Abraham invoked, and a petition to God to hear. The climax is a near-verbatim citation of Nehemiah 9:32 — "ועתה אלהינו האל הגדול הגבור והנורא שומר הברית והחסד" — and now, our God, the great God, the mighty and awesome one, keeper of covenant and lovingkindness — followed by a direct appeal for God to listen.

The Qumran community's genius here is integration: creation theology and Exodus memory are not separate doctrines but a single argument. Because God separated light from darkness at the beginning, and because God covered Pharaoh in the deep of the sea, and because God sustained his people through the wilderness — therefore God will hear the confession of this community now. The appeal to covenant history is also an appeal to the logic of God's own character.

The fragmentary state of the manuscript requires lacunae throughout. What survives is continuous enough to translate. The most damaged sections are noted.

The Confession

[I. God Who Separated Light from Darkness]

...to his statutes — to walk neither to the right nor to the left —
and to cling to his covenant,
to seek his words.
He is God.

And to search the ways of the children of Adam:
God created darkness; God [created] light.
There is no hidden thing,
nothing that rests concealed before him.
All darkness — his light is in his dwelling.

For the children of darkness he separated them:
by the sun, by day,
and the moon at night,
and the stars — lights without number.
They stand before him.

Rains [pour] from his height.
What are we — all your works, O God?
Is not the flesh too weak
to understand how much [you know]?
Our souls are without number to [fully] know [your ways].

[II. Exodus Remembered]

...from the land — there was nothing like it.
From the wilderness, the drought and thirst —
he sustained us.
Like the eagle lifting its wings,
raising us on its pinions —
so the spirit and the wind led us.

From Egypt — for days beyond measure.
Through the deep.
Pharaoh he covered,
like stones in the depths.
And he led us through the wilderness,
and he sustained us.

[And on the day of judgment, God will destroy all... from the earth.
And he will blot out al[l].
And for days without end.]

[III. Confession of Sins]

...so that you may be justified,
so that you may be proved innocent.
Among our iniquities — a banner raised.
Our sin[s]...

Stiff of neck.
Our God, who is [sometimes] hidden:
he wiped away our iniquities.
And a holy spirit he created within us,
fashioning faithfulness in the flesh.

And sinners — return to you.
Broken before you [...].
For your people's sake,
upon their feet —
nations... kingdoms...

Teach transgressors your ways.
He established them.
Your children — faint of spirit, broken of spirit.
Nations raged; kingdoms tottered.

[IV. The Great Prayer]

You — he is my God.
The great God, [the keeper] of covenant and lovingkindness —
keeping his commandments...

Hear, [O God].
Through Moses — do not abandon your people.
Do not let any man walk in the stubbornness of his heart.
Let them not depart from your will, O my God.

Do not abandon your people and your inheritance —
that they may be sanctified, that they may purify themselves,
and your face shine upon them;
who knows the evil in the heart.

For you, above all, chose in our ancestors from of old.
You, Lord God, who chose in Abram:
you gave great nations into their hand,
houses full [of all good],
hewn cisterns, all good —
vineyards and olive trees.

Abraham, [Isa]ac, and Jacob.
God of [them all].

And now, our God —
the great God, the mighty and the awesome one,
keeper of covenant and lovingkindness:

Hear!
Through Moses you commanded:
"Hear the voice.
Do not walk [in evil].
Do not abandon [your people]."

That they may be sanctified and may purify themselves,
and your face shine —
above all.

You chose in our ancestors from of old.
You are the Lord God who chose in Abram.
[He gave] houses full...
vineyards and Eden...
And who did before our eyes
these great signs.

Colophon

Communal Confession translates the recoverable content of 4Q393 (Cave 4, Hebrew, first century BCE), reconstructed in composite with the related 4Q392 (Works of God). Both manuscripts were found during the 1952 Cave 4 excavations and published by Moshe Bernstein in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXIX (Oxford: Clarendon, 2002).

Translation from Hebrew by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Hebrew source text drawn from the Qimron Composite Edition (Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts, Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2010; digital edition Zenodo 2020, CC BY 4.0). The prayer is substantially fragmentary; the sections presented represent the most securely legible material from the composite manuscript. Lacunae are marked with [...]. The judgment oracle in section II is preserved as a variant reading in the manuscript tradition.

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