He will not resemble any man who lacks goods — he will be like the great sea.
He will leave the house in which he was born.
Another dwelling. His sanctuary.

(Six heavily lacunose lines from a single Cave 4 Aramaic manuscript. Too fragmentary for continuous narrative; the surviving vocabulary is presented as attested. The text appears to be a prophetic oracle — perhaps horoscopic or birth-omen — predicting the life-course of a priestly figure through poverty, displacement, and ultimate consecration.)

The Oracle

Again, distress will come upon him.
The young one will lack goods [...].
52. Again, a loss will come to him —
he will lack goods [...].
And he will not resemble any man who lacks goods:
he will be like the great sea [...].
He will leave the house in which he was born;
another dwelling [...].
His sanctuary [...] he will consecrate [...].
[...].

Colophon

Text: 4Q540 (4QApocryphon of Levi A ar, Aramaic), Cave 4. PAM 43.603; ROC 150. Published in É. Puech, "Fragments d'un apocryphe de Lévi et le personnage eschatologique, 4QTestLévic-d (?) et 4QAJa," The Madrid Qumran Congress (1992), pp. 449–501; K. Beyer, ATTME (1994), pp. 78–82. Transcription consulted in García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–1999), vol. 2, pp. 1078–1079.

4Q540 is the companion manuscript to the Apocryphon of Levi (4Q541) — both documents in this archive belong to the same literary tradition of Aramaic Levi speculation at Qumran. Puech initially grouped them as 4QTestLévic-d (?), treating 4Q540 as the first copy and 4Q541 as the second; subsequent scholarship has treated them as distinct compositions, since the contents do not overlap.

The fragmentary oracle in 4Q540 appears to predict the future of a priestly figure — possibly Levi himself — through a pattern of initial deprivation followed by exaltation. The numeral "52" (=ב20+כ20+י10+א1+א1) appearing in line 2 has been interpreted as a horoscopic calculation, possibly the subject's birth year in a priestly calendar, or his age at a pivotal life transition. The "great sea" comparison — a man who appears to lack goods but is in fact as vast as the sea — inverts conventional wisdom about material prosperity.

The departure from the house of birth and the "other dwelling" in line 4 connect to the priestly displacement traditions found throughout the Qumran corpus: the Aramaic Levi Document (4Q213–214), the Testament of Qahat (4Q542), and the Visions of Amram (4Q543–548) all envision the ideal priest as a wanderer whose true home is the sanctuary.

Translated from Aramaic by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text

4Q540 (4QapocrLevia ar) — Cave 4, PAM 43.603, ROC 150.

1. [... תובא תתה עקא עלוהי ויחסר נכסין זעירא ויב ...]
2. [... 20+20+10+1+1 תובא יתה לה חסרו] ן ויחסר נכסין [...]
3. [... ידמה לכול גבר כסר (חסר) נכסין להן כימא רבא ...]
4. [... יתילד בה מנה יפו]ק [ומדור אחר]ן ביתא די [...]
5. [... שמש א]...[סוהי מקדש ...]
6. [... א]...[י יחרם ...]

Aramaic transcription from The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2 (García Martínez & Tigchelaar, Brill, 1998). Lacunae marked [...]. Text preserved in the Israel Antiquities Authority Dead Sea Scrolls Collections.

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