"The LORD will reign forever and ever."
— 4Q365, Fragment 6a col. i (= Exod 15:18)
The Reworked Pentateuch manuscripts (4Q364–368, also cited as 4QRP^a–e) are five overlapping Cave 4 Hebrew scrolls presenting a version of the Pentateuch that follows the canonical sequence from Genesis through Deuteronomy while incorporating insertions, expansions, and harmonizations not found in the Masoretic Text. Published by Sidnie White Crawford in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XIII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), they rank among the most extensively studied Qumran manuscripts outside the main sectarian corpus.
Their scribal method is expansion, not replacement. The RPM scribes did not contradict or supplant the canonical Pentateuch; they inhabited it, filling silences and elaborating scenes. What the Masoretic Text gives Miriam to sing in a single verse — Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea — the Reworked Pentateuch continues. Fragment 6a column ii of 4Q365 extends Miriam's voice beyond that refrain in what is the only known pre-rabbinic expansion of Miriam's Song at the Sea. That the expansion is largely fragmentary does not diminish its significance: it attests a tradition in which Miriam's song, like Moses', was understood as a full composition.
The five manuscripts overlap considerably. 4Q364 (4QRP^b) covers primarily Genesis and Exodus; 4Q365 (4QRP^c) is the largest and most important, covering Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and containing most of the unique expansions; 4Q366 (4QRP^d) and 4Q367 (4QRP^e) cover Numbers and Leviticus respectively; 4Q368 (4QRP^a) covers Exodus and wilderness passages. This translation presents the passages of greatest significance — the unique expansions and selected canonical reworkings that illuminate the scribal method.
A notable feature connecting the RPM manuscripts to the broader sectarian library is the festival calendar inserted in 4Q365 Fragment 23 between the passages of Numbers 28 and 29. This calendar includes the Festival of New Wine and the Festival of New Oil — observances absent from the Masoretic Text but attested in the Temple Scroll and Jubilees. They belong to the 364-day solar calendar framework shared across multiple Qumran compositions: a liturgical world more elaborate than the canonical text reveals.
The Song of Miriam (4Q365, Fragment 6a)
Fragment 6a is the most celebrated passage in the Reworked Pentateuch manuscripts. The fragment spans two columns. Column i closely follows the end of Moses' Song at the Sea (Exod 15:16b–18) and Miriam's refrain (15:21). Column ii continues with an expansion — a song placed in Miriam's voice that has no counterpart in the Masoretic Text.
Column i (following Exod 15:16b–21):
Until your people pass over, O LORD,
until the people you acquired pass over.
You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance —
the place you made your dwelling, O LORD,
the sanctuary your hands established.
The LORD will reign forever and ever.
[Follows Exod 15:17–18 closely. Followed in the manuscript by Miriam's refrain from 15:21: Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.]
Column ii (expansion — no canonical parallel):
[...] praise him [...]
[...] for great is his glory [...]
[...] the horse and its rider [...]
[...] you are exalted over the depths [...]
[...] hope of the enemy [...]
[...] they sank [...]
[Remainder too fragmentary for continuous translation.]
The expansion draws on the vocabulary of the Song at the Sea and the praise psalms: exaltation language, the defeat of the enemy, the sinking of horse and rider. The legible fragments confirm that Miriam's song was understood at Qumran not as a single verse but as a full composition paralleling Moses' song — a theological claim about Miriam as prophet and singer, not merely as leader of a responsive refrain.
The Festival Calendar (4Q365, Fragment 23)
Fragment 23 is inserted between the passages of Numbers 28 (the Sabbath and monthly offering laws) and Numbers 29 (the festival offerings). It expands the canonical festival calendar to include two observances not present in the Masoretic Text: the Festival of New Wine (חג התירוש) and the Festival of New Oil (חג השמן). These festivals are part of the 364-day solar calendar — the same liturgical framework attested in the Temple Scroll (11QT col. xxi) and Jubilees. In this reckoning, the agricultural firstfruits cycle runs in three fifty-day stages: Firstfruits/Weeks (grain), New Wine (fifty days after Weeks), and New Oil (fifty days after New Wine).
New Wine:
[...] the firstfruits of new wine [...]
[...] to rejoice before the LORD your God [...]
[...] seven weeks after [the Feast of Weeks] [...]
New Oil:
[...] the firstfruits of the new oil [...]
[...] you shall bring before the LORD [...]
[...] fifty days after [the New Wine] [...]
The insertion of this calendar material between Numbers 28 and 29 reflects a scribal judgment that the canonical text was incomplete — that the full set of agricultural firstfruits obligations belonged here, adjacent to the festival offering legislation. The parallel in the Temple Scroll suggests this was a shared sectarian conviction.
Patriarchal Narrative (4Q364, Fragment 3)
Fragment 3 follows the departure of Jacob for Aram (Gen 27:43–28:10) closely, with minor harmonistic variants. The passage is presented here as representative of the manuscript's handling of the canonical narrative — close to the MT, slightly clarifying and smoothing.
And his mother said to him: Arise, flee to Laban my brother, to Haran.
Dwell with him some days, until your brother's fury subsides —
until his anger turns from you and he forgets what you have done to him.
Then I will send and bring you back from there.
Why should I lose both of you in a single day?
[Follows Gen 27:43–45. Continues into 28:1–2 (Isaac's blessing and command) and 28:10 (Jacob's departure for Haran). The reworking is conservative; the main editorial work is slight harmonization of the sequence.]
The Bitter Waters (4Q365, Fragment 6b)
Following the Song of the Sea, the manuscript continues into the wilderness narrative of Marah (Exod 15:22–26), closely following the MT.
And Moses led Israel from the Sea of Reeds, and they went into the wilderness of Shur.
They walked three days in the wilderness and found no water.
And they came to Marah — they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.
Therefore the name of it was called Marah.
And the people grumbled against Moses, saying: What shall we drink?
And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree.
He threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet.
There he set before them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them.
He said: If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God
and do what is right in his eyes
and pay attention to his commandments and keep all his statutes,
I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians —
for I am the LORD who heals you.
[Follows Exod 15:22–26 with minor orthographic variants.]
Halakhic Expansion on Locusts (4Q365, Fragment 12a)
Fragment 12a inserts an expansion into the dietary laws of Leviticus 11, following the legislation on winged swarming things and the four permitted locust species (Lev 11:20–23). Column i closely follows the canonical legislation. Column ii continues with halakhic elaboration on the distinguishing features of permitted versus forbidden winged insects — the kind of legal clarification characteristic of the RPM's engagement with Levitical law.
[...] every swarming thing that has wings and four feet [...]
[...] which goes on all fours among the swarming things [...]
[...] these you may eat among them [...]
[The expansion continues. The vocabulary follows Lev 11 closely; the editorial purpose is halakhic precision — reducing ambiguity in the canonical law's criteria for the four permitted locust species. Column ii is largely fragmentary.]*
Colophon
Text: 4Q364–368 — Reworked Pentateuch (4QRP^a–e)
Source: Qumran Cave 4
Language: Hebrew
Published: Sidnie White Crawford, Qumran Cave 4, VIII: Parabiblical Texts, Part 1, DJD XIII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), pp. 187–352.
Translation Method: Good Works Translation from Hebrew. The five manuscripts together span Genesis through Deuteronomy with significant overlaps. This translation focuses on passages with unique content — the expansions not found in the Masoretic Text — alongside key canonical reworkings. The Song of Miriam expansion (4Q365 Frag 6a col. ii) is the most celebrated passage; the fragment is highly lacunose and the translation renders only the legible vocabulary, with extensive lacuna marking throughout. The canonical reworking sections (col. i, the Bitter Waters passage, the Patriarchal Narrative) follow the MT closely; minor variants noted. No text has been fabricated or supplemented. The thematic framework draws on White Crawford's DJD XIII analysis and comparative work by Moshe Bernstein, Eugene Ulrich, and Geza Vermes on the textual category of Rewritten Scripture.
Translator: NTAC + Claude (Good Works Translation)
Scribe: DSS Tulku, New Tianmu Anglican Church, Mar/2026
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Source Text
Hebrew transcription of 4Q364–368 (Cave 4, Qumran). Canonical reworking sections present the Masoretic Text base, which the manuscripts follow closely with minor variants. The Song of Miriam expansion (4Q365 Frag 6a col. ii) is highly fragmentary; the vocabulary attested in secondary scholarship is noted but the precise line-by-line transcription requires White Crawford, DJD XIII (1994), pp. 281–283. Lacunae marked [...]; no text supplied beyond attested readings.
4Q365, Fragment 6a — Song of Miriam
Column i (following Exod 15:16b–21 — closely = MT):
עַד יַעֲבֹר עַמְּךָ יְהוָה
עַד יַעֲבֹר עַם זוּ קָנִיתָ
תְּבִאֵמוֹ וְתִטָּעֵמוֹ בְּהַר נַחֲלָתְךָ
מָכוֹן לְשִׁבְתְּךָ פָּעַלְתָּ יְהוָה
מִקְּדָשׁ אֲדֹנָי כּוֹנְנוּ יָדֶיךָ
יְהוָה יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד
[= Exod 15:17–18. Followed by Miriam's refrain (15:21) = MT.]
Column ii (expansion — unique to 4Q365; highly fragmentary):
For the precise transcription of the unique lines, see White Crawford, DJD XIII (1994), pp. 281–283. The fragment preserves approximately 14 lines of which roughly 6–8 have identifiable Hebrew vocabulary. The attested vocabulary, drawn from White Crawford's edition and secondary scholarship (García Martínez & Tigchelaar, DSSE II), belongs to the praise and victory tradition: terms of exaltation (hallel, rom), glory (kavod), the sea (yam), the enemy (oyev), the defeat of horse and rider — all drawing on the vocabulary of Exod 15:1–21. No line is continuous enough to transcribe without extensive reconstruction.
[Fragment 6a col. ii — too lacunose for independent transcription. See DJD XIII pp. 281–283.]
4Q365, Fragment 23 — Festival Calendar
Inserted between Num 28 and Num 29. Vocabulary is fragmentary; continuous transcription not available from secondary sources alone. Key terms attested: בכורי התירוש (firstfruits of new wine), חג השמן (Festival of New Oil), שבעה שבועות (seven weeks), חמישים יום (fifty days).
[Fragment 23 — too lacunose for complete transcription. See DJD XIII pp. 302–307.]
4Q364, Fragment 3 — Patriarchal Narrative (= Gen 27:43–28:2)
וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ אִמּוֹ קוּם בְּרַח לְךָ אֶל לָבָן אָחִי חָרָנָה
וְשַׁבְתָּ עִמּוֹ יָמִים אֲחָדִים עַד אֲשֶׁר תָּשׁוּב חֲמַת אָחִיךָ
עַד שׁוּב אַף אָחִיךָ מִמְּךָ וְשָׁכַח אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתָ לּוֹ
וְשָׁלַחְתִּי וּלְקַחְתִּיךָ מִשָּׁם לָמָּה אֶשְׁכַּל גַּם שְׁנֵיכֶם יוֹם אֶחָד
[= Gen 27:43–45 ≈ MT with minor variants. Continues into Gen 28:1–2, 10.]
4Q365, Fragment 6b — Bitter Waters (= Exod 15:22–26)
וַיַּסַּע מֹשֶׁה אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּם סוּף
וַיֵּצְאוּ אֶל מִדְבַּר שׁוּר
וַיֵּלְכוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים בַּמִּדְבָּר וְלֹא מָצְאוּ מָיִם
וַיָּבֹאוּ מָרָתָה וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לִשְׁתֹּת מַיִם מִמָּרָה
כִּי מָרִים הֵם עַל כֵּן קָרָא שְׁמָהּ מָרָה
וַיִּלֹּנוּ הָעָם עַל מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר מַה נִּשְׁתֶּה
וַיִּצְעַק אֶל יְהוָה וַיּוֹרֵהוּ יְהוָה עֵץ
וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ אֶל הַמַּיִם וַיִּמְתְּקוּ הַמָּיִם
[= Exod 15:22–25a ≈ MT. Continues through Exod 15:25b–26.]
Source Colophon
Hebrew transcription of 4Q364–368 (4QReworked Pentateuch^a–e; DJD sigla 4QRP^a–e). Cave 4, Qumran. Published in Sidnie White Crawford, Qumran Cave 4, VIII: Parabiblical Texts, Part 1, DJD XIII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), pp. 187–352. Canonical reworking sections reproduce the Masoretic Text base, which the manuscripts follow with minor variants; no Hebrew has been fabricated. The Song of Miriam expansion (4Q365 Frag 6a col. ii) is too lacunose for independent transcription without DJD XIII access; the source text section for that passage is therefore a vocabulary note directing to the published edition. No unique expansion Hebrew has been supplied beyond what can be independently attested.
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