The Hebrew of 4Q433a, line by line as Qimron prints it. The English translation, printed with this same Hebrew, is on the page Hodayot-like Text B.
Source Text: שיר (4Q433a)
The Hebrew as printed in Qimron, vol. 3, pp. 176–177. Square brackets enclose gaps and Qimron's restorations, and double brackets ⟦ ⟧ a gap where two fragments are joined unevenly. ◦ 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.
קטע 1
1 [ ]◦◦[ ]
2 [ שי]רׄות[ ]
3 [ ]בׄשו̄בׄ◦◦ [ ]◦◦◦ [ ]
4 [ ]תׄן֯ שיׄרוׄתׄיׄוׄ קודש ל◦[ שירות]
5 [בשפתי ח]ז֯ק ותשבוחות בפי עצו[ם ]
6 [ יש]תׄו̄ תירוש אׄזׄ ישמח אל [ ]
(שוליים תחתונים)
קטע 2
1 ל֯מו֯[עדי] עׄוׄלמים
2 : לׄמׄשׄכיל מ֯[ש]ל֯ ע֯לׄ כבוׄדׄ ◦
3 נטע שׄעשועׄים נטׄע בע֯ד֯[נ]ו֯ ו֯בׄכׄרׄמׄו בׄ[תוך]
4 עׄרׄוגהׄ ותפׄרׄינה ותר֯בׄיׄנהׄ דליותיו באׄ[רץ]
5 וכפותיו על׀משענת רום השׄמׄים וׄיׄתנדׄב֯
6 פארה לדורות עולמים ולעשות פר[י מתוק]
7 לכול טועמיו ובפריו לוא יראה באוש[ים]
8 עׄפׄיו ועליו ואבו יהיו בו ו[גזעו יא]מי֯רׄ עׄ[קר]
9 ב̄שורשיו לוא ינתקו מערוגׄתׄ מׄטׄע֯ו כיׄ[ ]
(שוליים תחתונים)
קטע 3+4
1 [ ]ת֯[ ]ב֯וער ל◦[ ]
2 [ ]נׄתך בׄא֯[ש ]י֯מט על [ רשעים]
3 [אש ]ופחים [ ]ל֯ת֯תׄ מפץ זׄ[עמו ]
4 [ י]זׄה כן יש֯[פוך] חרונו ^וזעמ עׄ[ברתו]^ לכול עׄ[ושי רשעה]
5 [ ]◦◦ סׄ⟦ ⟧◦ ותבעׄר֯⟦ בהמה עברת⟧ו֯ באש להבהׄ[ על כול]
6 בליעל וׄעׄלי֯⟦ כאכ⟧וׄל להבתׄ א֯[ש] בטירות צאׄו֯[ן לשון]
7 גדופים⟦ ⟧בׄ שואפי לצון שאׄ[ ]
8 אשמת⟦ ⟧ב֯פ֯חם ומאזרי להב[ה אש]
9 תבער ⟦ ⟧נחלי זפת לאכול מׄ[ ]
10 ובה[ו]ל֯ ⟦כי רכיל ללהט ⟧לדׄור[ות ]
Source Colophon
Transcribed from the rendered pages 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), pp. 176–177. Qimron's introduction: four fragments are written on the back of a papyrus, in a hand of the Hasmonean period. On the front is a scrap of a text of the Community Rule (4QSᵃ), and the order of the fragments and the size of the missing text were fixed by that text. First edition: Eileen Schuller, DJD XXIX, pp. 237–245, under the title "4QHodayot-like Text B".
Qimron's notes, in brief:
- Fragment 1, line 2: Schuller reads ]dwt[ here instead of "[so]ngs".
- Fragment 1, line 3: Schuller reads bšybt[w].
- Fragment 1, line 4: "his songs", or "songs".
- Fragment 1, line 5: "[str]ong" is a new reading.
- Fragment 1, line 6: Schuller reads ]nw here instead of "[they will dr]ink".
- Fragment 2, line 2: this line holds a special heading opening with the words "For the Instructor, a parable"; at the end of the line a vertical stroke rises from the line (printed as the small raised ◦ after כבוד).
- Fragment 2, line 3: "in [the midst of]" is a new reading; Ariel and Yuditsky propose [ʿzq].
- Fragment 2, line 4: Schuller reads "its tendrils" for "a garden bed"; compare line 9.
- Fragment 2, line 5: "and it offered itself freely" may be the language of rising up and growth; compare Ezekiel 17:23 ("and it will lift a branch and bear fruit"), Exodus 25:2 and the Daʿat Miqra commentary on that verse. Kister notes that this may be a miscopying of "and it gave much".
- Fragment 2, line 6: "fru[it that is sweet]": compare Song of Songs 2:3.
- Fragment 2, line 7: "rot[ten grapes]", or baʾush[ah], "spoiled fruit".
- Fragment 2, line 8: ʿalaw, "its leaves", stands for ʿalehu; "its shoots" is ʾibbo, compare Song of Songs 6:11. "And [its trunk will gr]ow tall" is a new reading. In "the st[ump]" the first letter is rounded and fits ʿayin; compare Daniel 4:12, 20, 33 (Qimron's references), "the stump of its roots".
- Fragment 2, line 9: the bet of "with its roots" is corrected: the scribe began to write shin at the start of the line, changed his mind and erased it, wrote bet or mem, and after it a new shin. "Its planting" is a new reading; Schuller reads bšmw, but grants that the first letter fits mem in particular.
- Fragments 3+4: the join of the fragments is proposed by Qimron from the context. The Community Rule text on the back of the fragment is hard to decipher and does not seem to fit the text of the complete scroll, so it cannot help to confirm or overturn the proposed join.
- Fragments 3+4, line 2: "in fi[re]" is a new reading. Yamet is a verb from the root mwṭ, a word for throwing; compare Psalm 140:11, "let coals fall upon them" (written ymyṭw). Schuller reads ]◦mṭ.
- Fragments 3+4, line 3: "and snares" follows the restoration of Ariel and Yuditsky, who compare Psalm 11:6, "he will rain snares on the wicked, fire and sulphur". Schuller restores [n]wpḥym and refers to the Hodayot scroll, column 13, line 18 (Qimron vol. 1, p. 76). "Fu[ry]" is a new reading.
- Fragments 3+4, line 4: "[he will spr]inkle" is a new restoration; "he will po[ur out]" is a new reading. The words written above the line may have held more words than "and the fury of [his] w[rath]"; for the restoration proposed here compare Zephaniah 3:8.
- Fragments 3+4, line 7: "those who pant after scorn": compare Proverbs 1:22, "and scoffers delight in scoffing".
- Fragments 3+4, line 8: "with coal", or ]hḥm; see photographs 40.629 and 41.508.
- Fragments 3+4, line 10: the subject of "to blaze up" is "streams of pitch".
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