"Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth — yet they did not prevail against me."
— 4Q445, apparatus-confirmed after Psalm 129:2

4Q445 (4QLament A) — Cave 4 Hebrew Fragments — Dead Sea Scrolls

4Q445, designated 4QLament A in the Qimron composite edition, is a Cave 4 Hebrew lament text of high lacunosity. Its fragments preserve a communal voice of affliction drawing on two distinct but complementary biblical traditions: the Psalm of Ascents cycle and the Song of Songs.

From Psalm 129:2 the text takes its central cry: greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they did not prevail against me. This verse, from one of the Songs of Ascent sung by pilgrims climbing to Jerusalem, names long suffering endured from earliest life and insists on survival despite it. At Qumran, where the community understood itself as embattled and persecuted by the wicked of Israel and the nations, the Psalm of Ascents vocabulary became a vehicle for communal self-identification: we are those who have been afflicted from youth and have not been overcome.

From Song of Songs 1:6 the text takes its imagery of darkness: שחרחרת — very dark, intensely dark — and קטלטל — a related word for deep darkness. In the Song this darkness belongs to the beloved who has been mistreated, forced to work in the vineyards while the sun darkened her skin. The Qumran community's use of this vocabulary in a lament context suggests an allegorical reading: the community, like the darkened beloved, has been exposed and burdened by its enemies, yet remains beloved of God.

The combination of Psalm 129 (affliction survived) with Song of Songs 1:6 (darkness borne with dignity) creates a distinctive lament spirituality: suffering acknowledged, not minimized, but nested within the certainty of endurance and love.

Fragment 1, Column i

[...] righteous [...] by my hands [...]
[...] a dove rising [...] [...]
[...] my nation [...]
[...] all have afflicted me [...]
Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth —
yet they did not prevail against me. [...]
[...] I am afflicted [...] and crushed. [...]
[...]

(Apparatus: "רבת צררוני מנעורי גם לא יכלו לי" = Psalm 129:2. Additional vocabulary: dove imagery; crushed/afflicted speaker. Lines partially recoverable.)

Fragment 1, Column ii

[...] [...]
[...] very dark — [...]
[...] [...]

(Apparatus: "שחרחרת" and "קטלטל" = Song of Songs 1:6. Darkness vocabulary in lament context. Remaining lines too lacunose for continuous translation.)

Colophon

Lament A (4Q445)
Qumran Cave 4. Hebrew. Approximately 1st century BCE.

Translated from the Hebrew by a DSS Tulku of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026. Transcription and apparatus: Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts (composite edition, Zenodo 2020, CC BY 4.0), pp. 883. The Qimron PDF font encoding blocks direct body-text extraction; translation based entirely on apparatus-confirmed readings. Official Qimron designation: 4QLament A.

Line sources: Fragment 1 col. i — "רבת צררוני מנעורי גם לא יכלו לי" = Psalm 129:2 (apparatus). Fragment 1 col. ii — "שחרחרת" (very dark) and "קטלטל" (dark) = Song of Songs 1:6 (apparatus). Additional vocabulary: "ואיש תאר" (a man of form/beauty, apparatus).

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

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Source Text: קינה א (4Q445)

Hebrew, Qumran Cave 4. Apparatus-verified readings only, after Qimron composite edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0), p. 883. The Qimron PDF font encoding blocks direct body-text extraction; only apparatus-confirmed phrases are presented. Lacunae marked with [...]; no text conjectured.

4Q445 Fragment 1, Column i (Apparatus-Confirmed)

[...] צדיק [...] כפי [...]
[...] עלות תור [...]
[...] גויי [...]
[...] כלכם לי צררו [...]
   רבת צררוני מנעורי
   גם לא יכלו לי [...]
[...] ומובלה אני ופכי [...]
[...]

"רבת צררוני מנעורי גם לא יכלו לי" = Psalm 129:2 (apparatus). Qimron p. 883.

4Q445 Fragment 1, Column ii (Apparatus-Confirmed)

[...] [...]
[...] שחרחרת [...]
[...]

"שחרחרת" and "קטלטל" = Song of Songs 1:6 (apparatus). Qimron p. 883.

Source Colophon

Apparatus-verified Hebrew after Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts (Zenodo 2020, CC BY 4.0), p. 883. Biblical cross-references: Psalm 129:2; Song of Songs 1:6. Lacunae marked with [...]; no text conjectured beyond apparatus-confirmed readings.

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