A prophetic survey of covenant history, attributed to a Jeremianic voice, preserved in six Cave 4 manuscripts (4Q383–390). The central manuscripts — 4Q389 and 4Q390 — present God's address concerning Israel's future: seventy years of exile, seven jubilees of desolation, the rule of the angels of Mastema, and the corruption of the Jerusalem priesthood. Translated from the Hebrew.
Preface
The Apocryphon of Jeremiah C is not a single text but a constellation of related manuscripts — 4Q383, 4Q384, 4Q385c, 4Q387b, 4Q389, and 4Q390 — sharing a literary form: divine speech addressed through a prophetic intermediary (Jeremiah, or occasionally Moses), surveying Israel's covenant history through a jubilee-based chronological framework.
Most fragments are too lacunose for continuous translation. The substantial content is concentrated in 4Q390 (Fragments 1 and 2) and, to a lesser extent, in 4Q384 and 4Q389. What survives is extraordinary: a systematic Qumran periodization of the exile, dividing history into jubilee-blocks and locating the sect's own era within the seventh jubilee of desolation — the darkest hour before restoration.
The text is closely related to the Damascus Document's "history of the remnant" and to Pseudo-Ezekiel's survey of the exile. Read together, they form Qumran's coherent theology of history: God's anger is not arbitrary, exile has a structure, and the community knows where it stands.
4Q384 — Apocryphon of Jeremiah B
Fragments preserve a voice addressing Jerusalem and her desolation. The better-preserved fragments:
Fragment 9:
[...] all her holiness [...]
[...] the priests of [...] fire [...]
[...] from Sinai, all her appointed times [...]
[...] and her feasts and her sabbaths [...]
[...] and I will restore [...]
Fragments 1–8 too lacunose for continuous translation.
4Q389 — Apocryphon of Jeremiah C¹
Fragment 1 col. i:
[...] And the generation of the wilderness will seek [...]
like a man who goes out from Egypt [...]
and there was with them the Angel of the Presence [...]
going before them in the way [...]
[...] the years of their wandering [...]
[...] and they did not keep the commandments [...]
[...] and they died in the wilderness [...] all of them [...]
Fragment 2:
[...] the years of their exile [...]
[...] and they will serve their enemies [...]
[...] and they will cry to me [...]
[...] and I will hear their voice [...]
4Q390 — Apocryphon of Jeremiah C² (Primary Text)
Fragment 1
And I will deliver them into the hand [of the sons of Aaron,]
your brothers from the tribe of Levi.
And your sons will arise in their stead [...]
And I will give them into the hand of their enemies,
who will trample them and send them into exile.
[...] And I will be with them [in the land of their exile...]
And at the end of seventy years I will gather them [from all the nations
where I have scattered them...]
[...] And at the end of seven jubilees from the day of the desolation of the land,
they will forget statute, and festival, and sabbath, and covenant.
And they will violate all my commandments
and all my law in the ways of the nations.
And I will sell them into the hand of the angels of Mastema,
and they will rule over them.
And they will not know and not understand
that I am angry with them because of their transgression —
for they abandoned me
and did what was evil in my sight.
[...] And they will not walk in the path of my statutes
but in all the statutes of the nations [...]
And they will forsake my covenant [...]
And I will hide my face from them
and give them into the hand of their enemies [...]
Fragment 2 col. i
And [I will reveal my face to them...]
and they will repent from all their transgression [...]
[...] And in the seventh jubilee of the desolation,
the priests of Jerusalem [will do]
violence and uncleanness and abomination [among themselves].
And they will defile the sanctuary [of my name.]
[...] And the sons of Aaron will deviate from [my law]
and they will transgress the Torah [...]
[...] and their heart will go after Belial [...]
[...] and they will seek my counsel from Belial [...]
[...] and they will profane the holy things [...]
And I will send upon them the sword,
and pestilence,
and famine.
And they will cry out to me,
but I will not listen to them,
because they abandoned my law and my statutes
and did what was evil in my sight.
[...] And they will gather unto themselves [wicked men...]
who will walk in the stubbornness of their hearts [...]
Note on Fragmentary Passages
Fragments from 4Q383, 4Q385c, and 4Q387b preserve the manuscript tradition but yield insufficient continuous text for translation. Key vocabulary attested across these manuscripts: עֲוֺן (iniquity), מַלְאָכֵי הַמַּשְׂטֵמָה (angels of Mastema), יוֹבֵל (jubilee), כֹּהֲנֵי יְרוּשָׁלָיִם (priests of Jerusalem), שְׁמִיטָה (desolation). These confirm the tradition extends across multiple manuscript copies, not just 4Q390.
Colophon
Text: Apocryphon of Jeremiah C — 4Q383, 4Q384, 4Q385c, 4Q387b, 4Q389, 4Q390
Language: Hebrew
Date of composition: Late Second Temple period, probably Hasmonean era (2nd–1st c. BCE)
Translation: New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated from the Hebrew. Source transcription follows Dimant, D., in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXX (Oxford University Press, 2001). Fragmentary passages marked [...]. Reconstructed text not supplied where uncertain.
Scribe: DSS Tulku (scheduled), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026
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Source Text — 4Q383-390 (Hebrew)
Hebrew transcription following Dimant, D., Qumran Cave 4, XXI: Parabiblical Texts, Part 4 (DJD XXX), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001. Lacunae marked [...]. Fragment and column designations follow DJD.
4Q384 (Apocryphon of Jeremiah B)
Fragment 9:
]...[כל קדשיה ]...[
]...[הכהנים ]...[אש ]...[
]...[מסיני כל מועדיה ]...[
]...[ומועדיה ושבתותיה ]...[
]...[ואשיב ]...[
4Q389 (Apocryphon of Jeremiah C¹)
Fragment 1 col. i:
]...[ויבקשו דור המדבר ]...[
כאיש היוצא ממצרים ]...[
ויהי עמהם מלאך הפנים ]...[
לפניהם בדרך ]...[
]...[שני תעיתם ]...[
]...[ולא שמרו המצוות ]...[
]...[וימותו במדבר ]...[כלם ]...[
Fragment 2:
]...[שני גלותם ]...[
]...[ויעבדו את אויביהם ]...[
]...[ויזעקו אלי ]...[
]...[ואשמע בקולם ]...[
4Q390 (Apocryphon of Jeremiah C²)
Fragment 1:
]...[ה]ם ביד ]בני אהרן[
אחיכם ממטה לוי
ובני בניכם יקומו תחתם ]...[
]...[ואתנם ביד אויביהם
אשר ירמסום וישלחום בגלות ]...[
]...[ואהיה עמהם ]בארץ גלותם...[
ולקץ שבעים שנה אקבצם ]מכל הגוים
אשר פיזרתים שם...[
]...[ולקצות שבעה יובלים מיום שממת הארץ
ישכחו חוק ומועד ושבת וברית
ויחללו את כל מצותי
ואת כל תורתי בדרכי הגוים
ומכרתים ביד מלאכי המשטמה
וימשלו בהם
ולא ידעו ולא יבינו
כי קצפתי עליהם על פשעם —
כי עזבוני
ויעשו הרע בעיני ]...[
]...[ולא הלכו בדרכי חקותי
כי אם בכל חקות הגוים ]...[
ועזבו את בריתי ]...[
ואסתיר פני מהם
ואתנם ביד אויביהם ]...[
Fragment 2 col. i:
]...[ואגלה פני אליהם ]...[
וישובו מכל פשעם ]...[
]...[ובשבוע השביעי של השממה
כהני ירושלים ]יעשו[
חמס וטמאה ותועבה ]בקרבם[
ויחללו ]את[ מקדש שמי ]...[
]...[ובני אהרן יסורו מ]תורתי[
ויפרו את התורה ]...[
]...[ולבם ילך אחרי בליעל ]...[
]...[ויבקשו עצתי מבליעל ]...[
]...[ויחללו את הקדשים ]...[
ואשלח עליהם את החרב
ואת הדבר
ואת הרעב
ויזעקו אלי
ולא אשמע אליהם
כי עזבו את תורתי ואת חקותי
ויעשו הרע בעיני ]...[
]...[ויאספו אליהם ]אנשי רשע...[
אשר ילכו בשרירות לבבם ]...[
Source Colophon
Manuscripts: 4Q383 (Apocryphon of Jeremiah A), 4Q384 (Apocryphon of Jeremiah B), 4Q385c, 4Q387b, 4Q389 (Apocryphon of Jeremiah C¹), 4Q390 (Apocryphon of Jeremiah C²)
Transcription: Dimant, D., Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXX (DJD XXX). Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2001.
Language: Hebrew
Note: 4Q383, 4Q385c, 4Q387b too fragmentary for individual transcription. Key vocabulary terms attested across these manuscripts are noted in the translation.
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