Praise with all your mouth.

(Lines 1–3 too fragmentary for continuous translation.)

Praise with all your mouth [...]

(Remaining lines too fragmentary.)

Colophon

Source: 4Q412, Caves of Qumran (Cave 4), first century BCE. Published in Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, Vol. 3 (Yad Ben-Zvi, 2015). Primary publication: DJD XX (Elgvin et al., Oxford University Press, 1997), classified as Sapiential Work B.

Tradition: Judean sectarian literature. 4Q412 is a Cave 4 Hebrew fragment classified among the sapiential texts from Qumran. Only one line yields continuous readable content: "Praise with all your mouth" (hallel bekhal pikha). The phrase belongs to the repertoire of communal liturgical exhortation — calling the worshipping assembly to total praise, paralleling the closing imperative of Psalm 150 ("let everything that has breath praise the LORD") and the praise theology of the Psalms Scroll (11QPs). The sapiential classification suggests this fragment belonged to a wisdom composition that included liturgical instruction alongside ethical teaching — a genre well attested at Qumran (compare Instruction, 4Q415–418). The fragment's surviving words are too few to determine its full scope or structure.

Note on lacunae: Only one line yields continuous readable text. No readings have been restored beyond what the transcription supports.

Translation: New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026 (from Hebrew transcription in Qimron composite edition). This translation is independent of existing English renderings.

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