"LORD God — how can I look toward you? How can I lift my face toward God?"
— 2Q21, apparatus-confirmed Moses intercession formula

2Q21 — Cave 2 Hebrew Fragment — Dead Sea Scrolls

2Q21 is one of two fragments from Cave 2 in Herodian script, published in DJD III (Baillet, Milik, and de Vaux, 1962), pp. 79–81. Seven lines survive, partially damaged. The text appears to be an apocryphal Moses narrative closely related in vocabulary and theological orientation to the Cave 4 texts 4Q392 (Works of God) and 4Q393 (Communal Confession), which similarly deploy Moses intercession language in Second Temple liturgical contexts. The apparatus confirms connections to Deuteronomic vocabulary and to the communal confession tradition of Ezra 9.

The fragment opens with a reference to Aaron's sons — Nadab, Abihu, and Ithamar — placing the scene within the priestly world of Leviticus 8–10. After the ordination of Aaron and his sons, Nadab and Abihu "offered unauthorized fire before the LORD," and fire went out and consumed them (Lev 10:1–2). Eleazar and Ithamar survived as the continuing Aaronic line. Moses then had to mediate between the grieving Aaron and the demands of priestly purity (Lev 10:6–20). 2Q21 appears to expand this scene, giving Moses a private intercession that the canonical text only implies.

The heart of the fragment is Moses' confession formula: "How can I look toward you? How can I lift my face toward God?" This echoes Ezra 9:6 — "my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you" — which became the standard posture of Second Temple confession prayer. The 4Q393 communal confession deploys the same vocabulary for the whole community. 2Q21 may preserve the Mosaic archetype: Moses himself, unable to raise his face before God in the wake of the catastrophe that consumed Nadab and Abihu, yet pressing forward in prayer. His prostration before the LORD is the original act from which later confession liturgy learned its posture.

Fragment 1

[...Nada]b and Abih[u and Itha]mar [...]
[...] to deal with you in truth and to prove [with faithfulness ...]

[...]
And Moses came to the camp and prayed before the LORD
and prostrated himself before [him].
And he said:
LORD God —
how can I look toward you?
How can I lift [my face] toward God?

[...] the people, and prevailed;
and he asked [...] and said to me:
why [am I ...] and why is this [...]

[...] he fell there, and said to him, and blessed [...] [...]

Colophon

Translated from the Hebrew (2Q21) by the New Tianmu Anglican Church (NTAC). Source: Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls — The Hebrew Writings, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2010), pp. 79–81, with reference to DJD III (Baillet, Milik, de Vaux; Oxford: Clarendon, 1962). Scribal credit: Tulku of the Dead Sea Scrolls lineage, Mar 2026. Translation from the Hebrew. Gaps indicated by [...]. Lacunae not filled.

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