"There is no comforter for her — for the enemy has prevailed." The only surviving pure lament poem from the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4Q179 gives voice to Zion's grief in the ancient cadences of the biblical Lamentations.
4Q179 — Apocryphon of Lamentations A — Dead Sea Scrolls
The Lament of Zion (4Q179) is a fragmentary Hebrew lament poem from Qumran Cave 4, composed in close imitation of the biblical Lamentations. The city of Jerusalem is personified as a bereaved woman — in mourning, clothed in sackcloth, weeping through the night with no one left to comfort her. Her children have gone into exile. Her sanctuaries are desolate. The enemy has prevailed.
The poem is not a copy of Lamentations but an independent composition in its spirit: the same cadences, the same grief, the same haunting refrain — there is no comforter for her — gathered around a fresh witness to Zion's ruin. Three fragment groups survive; the best-preserved is Fragment 1, Column i. The text is highly lacunose throughout.
4Q179 is the sole pure lament poem in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus. The Hodayot are hymns of thanksgiving. The Pesharim are commentary. The Community Rule is law. Only this small, broken text kneels down and weeps.
Fragment 1, Column i
[...] she sits desolate,
like a woman in mourning, clothed in sackcloth,
like a virgin girded with sackcloth
for the husband of her youth.
She weeps and weeps in the night,
her tears upon her cheeks.
Among all who loved her, none comforts her.
[...] daughters of Jerusalem
and daughters of my city [...]
because of trouble and groaning [...]
Her children have gone into exile,
[...] before the oppressor.
There is no comforter for her.
For the enemy has prevailed.
[...] they carried her into captivity [...]
[...] all her beauty is gone from her.
Her sanctuaries lie desolate [...]
Fragment 1, Column ii
[...] the elders [...]
they sit upon the ground,
dust upon their heads [...]
The priests mourn [...]
young men and maidens [...]
the sanctuary [...]
[...] the foundations of Zion [...]
her gates are desolate.
There is no comforter for her.
[...]
Fragment 2
[...] the humble of my people [...]
the congregation [...]
[...] desolation [...]
Colophon
Lament of Zion (4Q179 — Apocryphon of Lamentations A)
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 & E.J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–98), vol. 1, pp. 368–371. Editio princeps: J.M. Allegro, Qumrân Cave 4: I (4Q158–4Q186), DJD V (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), pp. 75–77, Pls. XXVII–XXVIII.
The refrain there is no comforter for her (אין מנחם לה) echoes Lamentations 1:2, 1:9, 1:17, and 1:21. The composition is independent — not a copy of the biblical Lamentations but a new voice shaped by the same grief. The text is highly fragmentary; lacunae are marked throughout with [...]; no text has been conjectured beyond what the Hebrew preserves.
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Source Text: לקינת ציון (4Q179)
Hebrew transcription, Qumran Cave 4. After García Martínez & Tigchelaar, DSSE vol. 1, pp. 368–371.
Fragment 1, Column i
[...] כאשה אבלה ל[בשה שק]
[...] כתולה חגרת שק על [בעל נעוריה]
[...] בכה תבכה בלילה
ו[דמעתה על לחיה]
מכל אוהביה [אין מנחם לה]
[...] בנות ירושלם
ובנות עי[רי]
[...] כי צרות ותאניות [...]
[...] הלכו בניה בגולה
[...] לפני הצר
אין מנחם לה
כי אויב גבר
[...] ויביאוה בגולה [...]
[...] הלך ממנה כל הדרה [...]
[...] מקדשיה שמה [...]
Fragment 1, Column ii
[...] זקנים [...]
[...] ישבו לארץ [...]
[...] עפר על ראשיהם [...]
[...] כהנים [...] אבלים [...]
בחורים ובתולות [...]
[...] מקדש [...]
[...] יסודות ציון [...]
[...] שעריה שממה
אין מנחם לה
[...]
Fragment 2
[...] ענוי עמי [...]
[...] עדה [...]
[...] שממה [...]
Source Colophon
Transcription after F. García Martínez & E.J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–98), vol. 1, pp. 368–371. Editio princeps: J.M. Allegro, Qumrân Cave 4: I, DJD V (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), pp. 75–77. Lacunae marked with [...].
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