Who stiffened their necks — they acted wantonly with a high hand. What survives is mostly silence and broken edges; what is preserved is condemnation and the uncompromising logic of the sectarian interpreter.

The Pesher on the Latter Days C (4Q182) is the third of three Cave 4 manuscripts in a cluster of eschatological pesharim. Its companions are the Pesher on the Periods (4Q180–181, known in this collection as Ages of Creation). All three interpret scripture as coded prophecy about the sect's own historical moment — the aḥarit ha-yamim, the latter days.

4Q182 survives as a single parchment fragment preserving portions of two columns. It is among the most fragmentary of the Qumran pesharim. Column i applies the Deuteronomistic language of Israel's stubborn rebellion — "who stiffened their necks" and "acted wantonly with a high hand" — to the enemies of the sectarian community. The standard pesher formula is visible: biblical lemma quoted, followed by pishro (its interpretation applied to the community's present). Here, as in the Commentary on Habakkuk, the wicked are those who broke covenant with God and will face eschatological judgment.

Column ii is nearly destroyed. Only the phrase "in the latter days" and scattered words are legible.

The manuscript is held at the Israel Antiquities Authority. Published in DJD V (Allegro, 1968); re-examined in DJD XXII (Brooke et al., 1996); text-critical edition in Qimron's Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts (2010).

Fragment 1, Column i

[Pesher] on the latter days [...]

[...] who stiffened their necks [...]

[...] they acted wantonly with a high hand [...] to begin [...]

[...] as it is written against them in the book of [...] its interpretation [...]

[...] for this I will forgive you [...] who swore not by God [...]

Fragment 1, Column ii

[...] in the latter days [...to...]

[...] to strike them [...]

[...] (too lacunose for translation)

Colophon

Translated from Hebrew (4Q182 — Qimron, Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts, 2010, CC BY 4.0) by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, Mar/2026. Substantial lacunae throughout; reconstructed portions in square brackets represent the most probable lost text based on context. Column ii yields no continuous translation. The standard pesher formula is discernible in column i though the biblical lemma being commented upon is lost to damage.

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