Add upon it a thousandfold — and their blessings.

Introduction

The Prayer of Thousandfold Blessing (4Q292) is a brief liturgical prayer from Cave 4, preserved in a single fragmentary column. The text is a petition for the multiplication of divine blessing, addressed to God in the second person, and it closes with the solemn double affirmation Amen, Amen.

The prayer's governing image — God adding blessing upon blessing "a thousandfold" — echoes Deuteronomy 1:11: "May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are." But the Qumran text internalizes this: it is not numbers that are to be multiplied but the blessings themselves, and the beneficiaries are identified as "your servants who come" — the community arriving before God in prayer or covenant ceremony.

The apparatus preserved in the Qimron transcription identifies Isaiah 26:3 — "You keep the steadfast mind in perfect peace" (יצר סמוך תצר שלום שלום) — as a textual parallel, suggesting the prayer was composed in a moment of communal trust and petition rather than crisis. The prayer is addressed simply and directly, without elaborate theological framing, and ends with the double Amen that marks formal liturgical closure.

Fragment 1 is the only readable fragment.

Fragment 1

[Line 1: too fragmentary.]

[Line 2:] [...] for [...] as your portion [...]

[Line 3:] [...] add upon it a thousandfold [...] and their blessings [...]

[Line 4:] [...] as the word that [...] all your servants who come [...]

[Line 5:] [...] Blessed be the Lord [...] Amen, Amen.

Colophon

Translated from the Hebrew of 4Q292 (Cave 4, Qumran), using the Qimron composite edition (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020) as primary working text. Apparatus-confirmed readings are: הוסף עליה אלפים פעמים (add upon it a thousandfold), וברכותם (and their blessings), כל עבדיך הבאים (all your servants who come), ברוך אדני (Blessed be the Lord), אמן אמן (Amen Amen). The apparatus cross-references Isaiah 26:3 (יצר סמוך תצר שלום שלום). Lacunae marked with square brackets throughout.

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

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Source Text

4Q292 — Fragment 1

[...] [...]
[...] כ]י בְּ]אַחֲלָ]תְ]ך [...]
[...] הוֹסֵ]ף עָלֶ]יהָ אֲ]לָפִ]ים פְּ]עָמִ]ים [...] וּבִ]רְכ]וֹתָ]ם [...]
[...] דָּ]בָ]ר אֲ]שֶׁ]ר [...] כָּ]ל עַ]בְ]דֶ]יךָ הַ]בָּ]אִ]ים [...]
[...] בָּ]רוּ]ך אֲד]נָ]י [...] אָמֵן אָמֵן

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

Source Colophon

Hebrew transcription of 4Q292 (Cave 4, Qumran), included in the Qimron composite edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020). The prayer draws on the blessing-multiplication tradition of Deuteronomy 1:11 and the peace formula of Isaiah 26:3.

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