Elders ... judges of mixed kinds ... captors of the wicked.

(Fragment 1, three lines. The complete surviving text.)

[...] elders [...]
[...] judges of mixed kinds [...]
[...] captors of the wicked [...]

Colophon

Text: 4Q481 (4QText Mentioning Mixed Kinds, also designated ROC 186), Cave 4. Fragment 1 preserving three lines. Published by Erik Larson and Lawrence Schiffman in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXII (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), pp. 303–304, pl. XXVII.

The text is named for the term כלאים (kilayim, "mixed kinds") in line 2. In biblical law, kilayim denotes the prohibition of mixing distinct kinds: two seeds in the same field (Lev 19:19; Deut 22:9), wool and linen in the same garment (sha'atnez, Deut 22:11), or two kinds of animals in the same yoke (Deut 22:10). The term also carries a secondary meaning, "imprisonment" or "confinement" (from the root כלא = to shut up), which the DSSE translates with a question mark. The manuscript's scholarly name confirms the kilayim reading.

The presence of "elders" (זקנים) and "judges" (דייני) alongside the kilayim prohibition places this text within the tradition of Qumran halakhic legislation — judges and elders applying biblical law to community disputes. The Temple Scroll, the Damascus Document, and the Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah all engage with questions of purity law and mixed kinds; this fragment may belong to the same halakhic tradition.

Translation: Good Works Translation from Hebrew by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Hebrew transcription consulted in García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–1999), vol. 2, p. 960.

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Source Text

4Q481 — פרגמנט 1 (Fragment 1)

Hebrew transcription from García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2, p. 960 (Brill, 1997–1999). Square brackets indicate lacunae or restorations.

]...[.י זקנים    1
]...[. דייני כלאים א    2
שבאי[...] רשעים    3

Notes

Line 2: דייני כלאים = "judges of mixed kinds" (kilayim). The root כלא can mean both "to confine/imprison" and is the noun כלאים = mixed kinds (agricultural, textile, and animal mixing prohibitions). The manuscript title confirms the kilayim reading; the DSSE renders it "judges of imprisonment (?)" noting the ambiguity.

Line 3: שבאי = "captors/those who take" (root שבה = to capture, take captive). שבאי רשעים = "captors of the wicked" or "hunters of evil ones."

Source Colophon

Source: Hebrew. Cave 4, Qumran. DJD XXII (Larson & Schiffman, 1996). Transcription: García Martínez and Tigchelaar, DSSE (1997–1999), vol. 2.

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