The Lord gave heed and heard. A book of remembrance was written before him. That is the text the sect chose to remember themselves by — not a battle, not a covenant ceremony, but an ordinary moment of the faithful speaking to one another, and God listening.
Commentary on Malachi (4Q253a) is a Cave 4 Hebrew manuscript published by George J. Brooke in Qumran Cave 4, XVII: Parabiblical Texts, Part 3 (DJD XXII; Oxford: Clarendon, 1996). Three fragments survive. Fragment 1 preserves Malachi 3:16–18 as a scriptural lemma followed by a brief sectarian interpretation — the only preserved pesher on the book of Malachi in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus. Fragment 2 applies Leviticus 17 to a ruling on sacrificial blood. Fragment 3 preserves the phrase "House of Peleg," a sectarian self-designation known from the Damascus Document (CD 20:22–24) for the community's founding act of separation from the mainstream Temple establishment.
The Malachi passage was a natural text for the sect to interpret. Malachi 3:16 speaks of God-fearers who "spoke one to another" and had their names written in a heavenly book — the Qumran community, which maintained community records and understood itself as a covenant of the elect, recognized itself in this verse. The "day I make my treasure" (סגולה) became the eschatological horizon: the final judgment when the distinction between the righteous and the wicked would at last be made visible. The community believed it already lived as that elect treasure, separated in advance of that day.
Fragment 1 — Malachi 3:16–18 (Lemma and Interpretation)
Then those who feared the Lord spoke one to another, and the Lord gave heed and heard; a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and for those who meditate on his name.
[And they shall be mine,] says the Lord of Hosts, on the day when I make my treasure; I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.
And you shall return and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.
Its interpretation concerns [the congregation of] the righteous [...]
Fragment 2 — On the Blood of Offerings
[From Is]rael — whoever slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat and does not [...] his blood — it counts for him as the blood of the base of the altar, the burnt offering [...]
[Lacuna. The fragment applies Leviticus 17:3–4 to a ruling on proper sacrificial procedure, likely in connection with the community's stringent purity laws.]
Fragment 3 — The House of Peleg
[...] Jeremiah [...] House of Peleg.
[The "House of Peleg" (בית פלג) appears in the Damascus Document (CD 20:22–24) as a designation for the community members who departed from the mainstream Jewish community to found the sectarian settlement. The term plays on the name Peleg, whose name means "division" (Genesis 10:25). Their departure was, in the community's own self-understanding, not a split but a faithful separation.]
Colophon
Translated from the Hebrew transcription of 4Q253a as preserved in Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts (2010), confirmed against the editio princeps in DJD XXII. Translated into English by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026. Scribal work: Tulku (DSS lineage, session 2026-03-21).
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Source Text — 4Q253a
The Hebrew transcription of 4Q253a. Fragment 1 preserves Malachi 3:16–18 as the scriptural lemma, followed by the opening of the pesher. Fragment 2 preserves a halakhic ruling based on Leviticus 17:3–4. Fragment 3 preserves "House of Peleg." Lacunae marked with [...].
Fragment 1
אז דברו יראי יהוה איש אל רע[ה ויקשב]
[ויש]מע יהוה ויכתב ספר זכרון לפניו ליראי יהוה ולחשבי שמו
[ולי הם] אמר יהוה צבאות ביום אשר אני עושה סגולה
וחמלתי עליהם כאשר יחמל [איש] [על בנו] אשר עובד אותו ושבתם וראיתם
בין צדיק לרשע בין עובד אלהים לאשר לא עבדו
ופשרו על [קהל ה]צדיק [...]
Fragment 2
[מי]שראל אשר ישחט שור או כשב או עז ולא [ישגיא דמו]
[י]שגיא דמו לאיש יחשב דם [ה]מזבח [ה]בסיס העולה [...]
Fragment 3
[...] הרמיה [...]
בית פלג
Source Colophon
Hebrew source text transcribed from the editio princeps (DJD XXII, Brooke, 1996) and the Qimron composite edition. Brackets indicate lacunae and reconstructions. The text is fragmentary; continuous sections are separated by horizontal rules.
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