Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

Lament A (4Q445) — Source Text

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

The Hebrew of 4Q445, line by line as Qimron prints it. The English translation, printed with this same Hebrew, is on the page Lament A (4Q445).

Source Text: 4Q445

The Hebrew as printed in Qimron, vol. 3, p. 185. 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.

קטע 1

1 [ בצ]דׄק כׄפי [ ]

2 [ ]ב֯עלת תור [ ]

3 [ ]הׄגיוני [ ]

קטע 3

1 [ ]◦ [י]כׄלׄו לׄי כלׄ צׄוׄר֯ר֯[י ]

2 [ ] אני עזׄוׄבׄה ומנובלה֯[ ]

קטע 6

1 [ ]ספור [ ]

2 [ ]י֯רקרוקים֯[ ]

3 [ ]◦לךׄ ע◦[ ]

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. 185. Qimron's introduction: three of eight tiny fragments, in a hand from the beginning of the Herodian period, which partly use the first person and the third person feminine; he gives the text no Hebrew title. First edition: Eibert Tigchelaar, DJD XXIX, pp. 379–384, where the text is called "4QLament A".

Qimron's notes, in brief:

  • Fragment 1, line 1: "[in righ]teousness" is a new reading, after the Wisdom of the Perfect of Way, copy A, fragment 1, line 6 (vol. 2, p. 188), "and his palms in righteousness …".
  • Fragment 1, line 2: baʿalat toʾar means a woman of beautiful appearance; compare 1 Samuel 16:18, "a man of form".
  • Fragment 3, line 1: read as Ariel and Yuditsky read it; compare Psalm 129:2, "Much have they harassed me since I was young, yet they could not overcome me." Tigchelaar reads instead "all who know [me] are gone from me".
  • Fragment 6, line 2: yeraqruqim is an adjective of the qetaltal pattern, like sheḥarḥoret ("very dark"). This rare adjective occurs twice in Leviticus 13–14, describing the plague on a garment and the plague on a house. The text here may also concern skin disease, and the verb from the root spr in line 1 may refer to counting the seven days of shutting up; if so, this fragment is not connected with the others.

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