"I give thanks to you, O Lord — your wonders are beyond number, and the humble you lift from the dust." Three tiny manuscripts from Cave 4 carry the silhouette of a hymn: the posture is unmistakable, the words half-gone.

4Q440, 4Q440a, 4Q440b — Hodayot-like Texts — Dead Sea Scrolls, Cave 4

Three small parchment manuscripts from Cave 4 at Qumran — 4Q440, 4Q440a, and 4Q440b — preserve remnants of thanksgiving hymns that stand apart from the main Hodayot scroll (1QHa) and its Cave 4 copies. Classified by Eileen Schuller as Hodayot-like Texts A, B, and C, these fragments share the Hodayot's vocabulary, first-person voice, and theological grammar without overlapping with the known Hodayot text. They are among the most lacunose manuscripts in the collection.

What survives is characteristic: the speaker as dust before an incomprehensibly generous God, wonders beyond number, the humble lifted from the ash heap, spirit and truth as the framework of the covenant relationship. The form is unmistakably Hodayot. The Qumran community's hymnic tradition was not confined to a single scroll — it was a living form, composed and recomposed across the community's life. These three manuscripts are the shadow of voices we will never fully hear.

4Q440 — Fragment 1

The largest surviving piece. Approximately ten partially preserved lines of a thanksgiving hymn. Many lines yield only one or two words; the lacunae dominate. No text has been conjectured beyond what the Hebrew preserves.

[...] I give thanks to you, O Lord, [...]
[...] your wonders [...] great [...]
[...] the humble [...] from the dust [...]
[...] your glory [...] for ever [...]
[...] spirit [...] truth [...]
[...] your steadfast love [...]
[...]

The language is unmistakably Hodayot — the first-person confessor, the incomprehensible wonders of God, the humble raised from the dust, spirit and truth held together as the shape of the covenant. No continuous passage survives intact. What we have is a silhouette: the shape of a hymn, the vocabulary of devotion, the posture of a soul before God.

4Q440a — Fragment 1

A very small fragment. A few partial words survive from what appears to be a related hymnic composition. The text is too damaged for coherent sentence translation. Thanksgiving vocabulary is visible alongside the characteristic sectarian idiom.

[...] blessed [...] [...]

4Q440b — Fragment 1

Extremely small. No coherent translation is possible. Isolated letters and partial words survive on a fragment smaller than a coin.

[...]

Colophon

Hodayot-like Text A (4Q440, 4Q440a, 4Q440b)
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: F. García Martínez and E.J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–98), vol. 2, pp. 886–889. Editio princeps: Eileen Schuller, in Esther Chazon et al. (eds.), Qumran Cave 4, XX: Poetical and Liturgical Texts, Part 2, DJD XXIX (Oxford: Clarendon, 1999).

These fragments are among the smallest in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus. The translation preserves only what the Hebrew allows; all lacunae are marked with [...]; no text has been conjectured beyond what the fragments preserve. The silhouettes of the hymns — the thanksgiving formula, the wonders of God, the humble raised — are clear even where the specific words are not.

Good Works Translation (NTAC + Claude). New Tianmu Anglican Church, Mar/2026.

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Source Text: הודיות-כ (4Q440, 4Q440a, 4Q440b)

Hebrew transcription, Qumran Cave 4. After García Martínez & Tigchelaar, DSSE vol. 2, pp. 886–889.

4Q440 Fragment 1

[...] אוד[ה לך אדוני] [...]
[...] נפלאות[ך ...] גד[ול ...] [...]
[...] ענוים [...] מן [ה]עפ[ר ...]
[...] כב[ודך ...] לעול[מים ...]
[...] ר[וח ...] אמ[ת ...]
[...] חסד[ך ...]
[...]

4Q440a Fragment 1

[...] ב[ר]ו[ך ...] [...]
[...]

4Q440b Fragment 1

[...]

(Fragment too small for transcription; isolated letters only.)

Source Colophon

Transcription after F. García Martínez and E.J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–98), vol. 2, pp. 886–889. Editio princeps: Eileen Schuller in DJD XXIX (Oxford: Clarendon, 1999). Lacunae marked with [...].

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