If you listen to his voice... but if you do not listen to the voice of the LORD.
— 6Q9, following 1 Samuel 12
6Q9 is a Hebrew composition recovered from Cave 6 at Qumran, the cave discovered in 1952 that yielded thirty-one manuscripts, mostly on papyrus. Published by Maurice Baillet in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert III (1962), pp. 113–115, 6Q9 spans at least sixty-one fragments and covers a wide arc of the Samuel-Kings narrative in paraphrase or reworked form. The manuscript's explicit chronological marker — "until the exile" (עד הגּוֹלָה) — suggests the text extended through the Babylonian conquest, making it one of the longer narrative apocrypha in the Scrolls corpus.
The text belongs to the genre of "rewritten Bible" — the same genre as the Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20), the Temple Scroll, and the Book of Jubilees. Unlike the Pesharim, which apply prophetic texts to the sect's present, reworked-Bible texts expand, paraphrase, or supplement the narrative itself. 6Q9 appears to rework 1–2 Samuel and possibly portions of Kings, following the arc of Saul's rise, the Philistine wars, David's lament for Saul, and the succession — with the editorial note "until the exile" indicating a terminal scope.
The surviving fragment content is oriented around key dramatic moments in the Samuel tradition:
The Covenant of Kingship (1 Sam 12): Samuel's farewell address establishing the terms of the monarchy — the people must listen to God's voice or face judgment. The Qumran version appears to expand on this covenantal scene, with "if you listen to his voice... if you do not listen to the voice of the LORD" as the pivot.
The Goliath Battle (1 Sam 17): The Philistines fell on the road to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. The fragment preserves vocabulary from the battle's aftermath, though the specific expansions cannot be recovered.
Saul at Gibeah (1 Sam 14:2): Saul sitting at Gibeah under the pomegranate tree at Ramah — a moment of narrative stasis that the Apocryphon apparently highlighted or expanded.
David's Lament (2 Sam 1): "The sword of Saul did not return empty" — the famous elegy over Saul and Jonathan, here preserved in variant or expanded form.
The eleven cities mentioned in an early fragment (Fragment 1: "eleven cities") may correspond to Samuel's circuit of judgment cities (1 Sam 7:16–17 enumerates Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and Ramah) or another geographic list within the narrative.
Fragment 1
[...] eleven cities [...]
[...] until the exile [...]
Fragment 11
[...] listen to his voice [...]
[...] he will judge them [...]
Fragment 21
[...] those who fell, who [...]
[...] the sons of Israel [...]
Fragment 33
[...] Saul [...]
[...] from there to the king [...]
Fragment 35–36
[...] and his might [...]
Fragment 46–48
[...] from the kingdom [...]
Fragments 2–10, 12–20, 22–32, 34, 37–45, 49–61 are too lacunose for translation.
Note on the Fragments
The editorial notes in the Qimron Composite Edition confirm the Samuel-Kings identification through explicit parallels: the covenant language of 1 Samuel 12 ("if you listen to his voice / if you do not listen to the voice of the LORD"), the Goliath-battle aftermath of 1 Samuel 17:52 ("the slain of the Philistines fell on the road to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and as far as Ekron"), Saul at Gibeah under the pomegranate tree at Ramah (1 Sam 14:2), and David's Lament from 2 Samuel 1:22 ("the sword of Saul did not return empty"). These are not citations but narrative parallels — the 6Q9 text paraphrases or expands these moments rather than quoting them verbatim.
The phrase "until the exile" (עד הגּוֹלָה) is unambiguous and chronologically important: whatever the scope of the original composition, it extended at minimum to the Babylonian exile of 586 BCE. This aligns 6Q9 with other comprehensive historical narratives in Second Temple literature — Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, Josephus's Jewish Antiquities — though 6Q9's fragmentary state prevents comparison of narrative choices.
Colophon
6Q9. Cave 6, Qumran. Hebrew. Multiple fragments (sixty-one recovered), Herodian-period script. Principal publication: Maurice Baillet, Qumrân Grotte 4: II, III, V, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI (DJD III; Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), pp. 113–115. Also in the Qimron Composite Edition (2020, CC BY 4.0), which provides critical notes identifying the Samuel-Kings parallels.
Translation from Hebrew of the recoverable fragment content. The Samuel-Kings parallels identified in the Qimron editorial apparatus have been used to situate and contextualize the fragments, but the translation itself is limited to what the fragments directly yield. Conjectural restorations based solely on the corresponding biblical text have not been inserted; all lacunae are marked [...].
Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026.
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Source Text
6Q9 — Cave 6 Hebrew
Sixty-one fragments. The following presents the most securely attested Hebrew vocabulary from the key fragments, as decoded from the Qimron Composite Edition. Editorial parallels to the Samuel-Kings text are noted in brackets. All lacunae marked [...]. The full critical text is in Baillet, DJD III (1962), pp. 113–115.
Fragment 1
01 [ ] ערים אחת עשרה [ ]
02 [ ] עד הגּוֹלָה [ ]
[parallel: the "until the exile" chronological marker; "eleven cities" may correspond to a geographic list in the Samuel narrative]
Fragment 11
01 [ ] שמרו בקולו [ ]
02 [ ] וישפטם [ ]
[parallel: 1 Sam 12:14-15 — Samuel's covenant of kingship]
Fragment 21
01 [ ] הנופלים אשר [ ]
02 [ ] בני ישראל [ ]
[parallel: 1 Sam 17:52 — aftermath of the Goliath battle]
Fragment 33
01 [ ] לא ולא [ ]
02 [ ] שאול [ ]
03 [ ] משם אל מלך [ ]
[parallel: Saul material; possibly 1 Sam 14 or David's Lament]
Fragment 35–36
01 [ ] וגבורתו [ ]
Fragment 46–48
01 [ ] מן הממלכה [ ]
The Qimron edition notes the following Samuel-Kings parallels for orientation:
Samuel parallels:
1 Sam 12:14: ושמעתם בקולו ... ואם לא תשמעו בקול ה׳
2 Sam 1:22: וחרב שאול לא תשוב ריקם
1 Sam 17:52: ויפלו חללי פלשתים בדרך שערים ועד גת ועד עקרון
1 Sam 14:2: ושאול יושב בגבעה תחת האשל ברמה
Chronological: עד הגּוֹלָה (until the exile)
Source Colophon
6Q9. Cave 6, Qumran. Hebrew. Published: Baillet, DJD III (Oxford: Clarendon, 1962). Fragment vocabulary decoded from the Qimron Composite Edition (2020). Samuel-Kings parallels identified via Qimron editorial apparatus. All lacunae marked [...].
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