The Hebrew of 4Q411, line by line as Qimron prints it. The English translation, printed with this same Hebrew, is on the page Sapiential Hymn.
Source Text: חוכמה (4Q411)
The Hebrew as printed in Qimron, vol. 3, p. 162. 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. Half-brackets ⸢ ⸣ mark damaged skin or faded ink. Line numbers follow the edition.
1 [ו]תשׄמח בחכׄ[מה אל תחדל ליראה את]
2 יׄהׄוה פן יסׄח[כה מארץ חיים הלוא]
3 טוב יום אחדׄ[ ]
4 הנא החׄלתי ◦[ ]
5 לאדם והוא בׄ[רא ]
6 ידעתי את [ ]
7 מי חכם וׄ[ידע ]
8 ו̄גאל פׄצה א֯[ת ]
9 ותבונתו מי [ידע בה נטה שמים וימתחם]
10 כאהל לש[בת יהוה ברא כול]
11 בשרׄ יהו[ה ברא ]
12 יהוהׄ ברא חׄ[ ]
13 יהוה ברא שׄ[ ]
14 הופיעו לא֯[ ]
15 להרׄאות֯[ ]
16 לשעשׄ[ועים ]
17 ⸢[י]⸣הוה֯[ ]
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. 162. Qimron's introduction: a single fragment in a script of the end of the Hasmonean or the beginning of the Herodian period. From the little that survives one may guess that it belongs to a wisdom composition. It mentions God the Creator, whose word is the beginning of wisdom, and it speaks partly in the first person. Qimron has restored several sentences from parallels or by conjecture, to show the sense and syntax that join the surviving words. First edition: Annette Steudel, DJD XX, pp. 159–162.
Qimron's notes, in brief:
- Line 2: the restoration "lest he tear [you away from the land of the living]" follows Ariel and Yuditsky, after Deuteronomy 28:63 and Psalm 52:7. Steudel reads pn ysḥ[r].
- Line 3: compare the Wisdom of God's Mighty Acts (4Q185), column 2, lines 4–5 (vol. 2, p. 111). Binyamin Elitzur points to Psalm 84:11, "for a day in your courts is better", and to the Septuagint and the Vulgate, which read "one day" where the Hebrew has "a day".
- Line 8: Steudel reads bṣh for pṣh; García Martínez and Tigchelaar read bṣhl[h].
- Line 9: compare Isaiah 40:22, "who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in", and Jeremiah 10:12, "and by his understanding he stretched out the heavens".
- Line 10: Steudel reads bʾhl for kʾhl.
- Line 11: either yhw[h] or whw[ʾ], "and he".
- Lines 11–13: for the repeated "The LORD created", compare the repeated "God made" in the Wisdom of God's Mighty Acts (4Q185), column 3, lines 9–13 (vol. 2, p. 112).
🌲