To bless the holy Name — the glorious Name for eternity.

Introduction

The Prayer of the Glorious Name (4Q293) is a small liturgical fragment from Cave 4, preserved in two fragmentary columns. The text belongs to the category of short benedictions composed at Qumran — prayers whose purpose is not petition but adoration of the divine Name as such.

The theological center of 4Q293 is the name of God itself. The text moves from the act of blessing ("to bless the Holy One") to the object of blessing ("the glorious Name"), to the duration of that blessing ("for eternity" — ולמעולם), and finally to the cosmic frame within which the praise is situated: the firmament (רקיע). The progression mirrors the structure of the great doxologies of the Second Temple period — the Qaddish, Nehemiah 9:5, and the Psalms of praise that begin "Blessed is the glorious Name of his kingdom for ever and ever."

The second column is too damaged for continuous translation; it preserves only isolated words including "light" (אור), "darkness" (חשך), and "all" (כול), suggesting a cosmological expansion of the praise — the firmament containing both light and darkness, all of it swept into the eternal blessing of the Name.

Fragment 1 is the primary readable fragment.

Fragment 1

[Line 1: too fragmentary.]

[Line 2:] [...] to bless the Holy [...]

[Line 3:] [...] the glorious Name for eternity [...]

[Line 4:] [...] and the firmament [...]

Fragment 2

[Lines 1–2: too fragmentary.]

[Line 1:] [...] light and darkness and all [...]

[Lines 3–4: too fragmentary.]

Colophon

Translated from the Hebrew of 4Q293 (Cave 4, Qumran), using the Qimron composite edition (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020) as primary working text. Apparatus-confirmed readings are: לברך הקדוש (to bless the Holy One), השם הכבוד (the glorious Name), למעולם (for eternity), ורקיעי (and the firmament). Fragment 2 preserves: אור (light), חשך (darkness), וכול (and all). All other lines translated from continuous Hebrew where readable; remaining gaps marked with square brackets.

Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated by Tulku Ezra (Mar/2026).

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Source Text

4Q293 — Fragment 1

[...] [...]
[...] לְ]בָ]רֵ]ך הַ]קָּ]ד]וֹשׁ [...]
[...] הַ]שֵּׁ]ם הַ]כָּ]ב]וֹד [...]לְ]מ]עוֹ]לָ]ם [...]
[...] וּ]רְ]קִ]יעֵ]י [...]

4Q293 — Fragment 2

[...] [...]
[...] אוֹ]ר וְ]חֹ]שֶׁ]ך וְ]כ]וֹל [...]
[...] [...] [...]

Transcription based on Qimron composite edition (CC BY 4.0). Written in Herodian square script. The Qimron PDF font encoding renders substantial portions of the body text partially opaque; the above presents apparatus-confirmed readings only. Lacunae marked with brackets.

Source Colophon

Hebrew transcription of 4Q293 (Cave 4, Qumran), included in the Qimron composite edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020). The prayer belongs to the Second Temple tradition of doxological Name-blessing, with cosmological expansion characteristic of Qumran liturgical composition.

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