[...] our enemies consumed [...] they will praise with all their mouth [...] for manifold are your mercies [...] blow upon blow [...] and gather us [...]

(Ten fragmentary lines of a single column. The text is too lacunose for continuous translation; the surviving vocabulary is presented as attested.)

[...] ... [...]
[...] us. Woe ... [...]
[...] ... to a high hill [...]
[...] ... us, our enemies consumed [...]
[...] ... and they will praise with all their mouth [...]
[...] for manifold are your mercies, and because of the abundance of [their] guil[t ...] [...]
[...] ... and see, blow upon blow [...]
[...] and gather us [...]
[...] in ... [...]
[...] ... water [...]

Colophon

Text: 4Q481c (4QPrayer for Mercy, also designated ROC 194), Cave 4. One column of ten lines. Published by Erik Larson and Lawrence Schiffman in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), pp. 313–314, pl. XXVIII.

Despite its heavy lacunae, 4Q481c preserves the shape of a communal prayer of lament and appeal. The vocabulary is recognizably psalmic: enemies who consume (אכלו שנאינו, cf. Ps 27:2), communal praise with all mouths (והללו בכל פיהם), an appeal to God's manifold mercies (רבים רחמיך, cf. Ps 51:3 — "according to the abundance of your mercies"), and the phrase "blow upon blow" (מכה על מכה) describing affliction piled on affliction. Line 8 offers a petition to "gather us" — the ingathering motif shared with Narrative G (4Q481b) on the same manuscript. The phrase "to a high hill" in line 3 is unusual; it may refer to the Temple Mount, Zion, or a place of divine encounter. "Woe" (אוי, line 2) is a standard lament marker. The overall register is penitential-petitionary: the community cries out under sustained suffering and calls on God's mercy to gather and restore them.

Translation: Good Works Translation from Hebrew by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Hebrew transcription consulted in García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–1999), vol. 2, p. 962.

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Source Text

4Q481c — Hebrew Fragment

Hebrew transcription from García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2, p. 962 (Brill, 1997–1999). Square brackets indicate lacunae or restorations.

[…]…[…]    1
[…] ]…[.נו אוי די    2
[… ] ]…[.ה אל הר גבה    3
]… [לונו אכלו שנאינו    4
]…[ירה והללו בכל פיהם    5
]… [כי [רבים רחמיך ומרב אשמ]תם    6
]…[.א והנה מכה על מכה    7
]…[. וקבצנו    8
]…[.ש בכ    9
]…[.ה מים .]…[    10

Notes

Line 2: אוי = "woe / alas" — standard biblical lament interjection.

Line 3: הר גבה = "a high hill / a high mountain." Possibly Zion/Temple Mount or a place of divine theophany.

Line 4: אכלו שנאינו, "our enemies consumed [us]" — cf. Psalm 27:2, "when evil-doers came upon me to devour my flesh."

Line 5: והללו בכל פיהם, "and they will praise with all their mouth" — a future pledge of communal praise, conditional on divine rescue.

Line 6: רבים רחמיך, "manifold are your mercies" — echoes Psalm 51:3 (כְּרֹב רַחֲמֶיךָ). The phrase "because of the abundance of their guilt" (מרב אשמתם) makes this a penitential prayer: the community acknowledges sin while appealing to God's greater mercy.

Line 7: מכה על מכה, "blow upon blow" — a description of repeated, compounding affliction. The phrase resonates with Isaiah 28:13.

Line 8: וקבצנו, "and gather us" — petition for ingathering; connects thematically to the return-of-scattered-ones vocabulary in the adjacent 4Q481b.

Source Colophon

Source: Hebrew. Cave 4, Qumran. DJD XXII (Larson & Schiffman, 1996). Transcription: García Martínez and Tigchelaar, DSSE (1997–1999), vol. 2.

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