Jonathan the King, and all the congregation of your people Israel.
— 4Q448 Col. B
4Q448 is a three-column Hebrew manuscript from Qumran Cave 4. Column A contains material related to Psalm 154, a non-canonical psalm preserved in full in the Great Psalms Scroll (11QPsa). Column B is a communal prayer that names Jonathan the King (יהונתן המלך) — widely identified as Alexander Jannaeus, the Hasmonean king who ruled Judea 103–76 BCE under the Hebrew name Jonathan. Column C is too fragmentary for coherent translation.
If the identification is correct, this is one of the very few Qumran texts to name a living political figure, and it does so apparently in petition rather than condemnation. Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus is suspicious or hostile toward the Jerusalem establishment. A text offering what appears to be a communal prayer for the welfare of a Hasmonean king sits oddly in this context — and has generated considerable scholarly debate. The prevailing view (Eshel, Harrington, Puech) reads the prayer as positive: the community petitioning God on behalf of the king and his people. A minority view reads the lamed prefix as adversative ("against Jonathan") or identifies a different historical Jonathan. Neither reading resolves all difficulties.
What is certain: the name Jonathan the King appears in the manuscript, anchoring it to a historical moment with unusual specificity for a Qumran composition.
Column A
[Column A is heavily damaged. The legible portions contain material parallel to Psalm 154 (already translated in the Psalms Scroll, this collection). Only isolated phrases remain legible; no continuous translation is possible.]
[...] your holy name forever [...]
[...] all the assembly [...]
[...]
Column B — Prayer for Jonathan the King
[The best-preserved column. The text is a communal petition addressed to God. Heavy lacunosities throughout; no conjectural restorations have been inserted. The column opens with a reference to the holy city and your people Israel before naming the king and the congregation.]
[...] the holy city [...]
[...] all your people Israel, who are scattered to the four winds [...]
[...] before you [...]
[...] Jonathan the King, and all the congregation of your people Israel [...]
[...] peace for all of them and for your kingdom [...]
[...]
Column C
[Too fragmentary for coherent translation. Isolated words only. The column likely continued the prayer of Column B, but no legible sequence survives.]
Colophon
4Q448 (4QPrayer for King Jonathan). Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Three columns, Hasmonean-period script, probably late second or early first century BCE. First announced by A. Yardeni, E. Eshel, and H. Eshel in Tarbiz 60 (1991), 295–324 (Hebrew); principal publication in English: Esther Eshel, Hanan Eshel, and Ada Yardeni, "A Qumran Composition Containing Part of Ps. 154 and a Prayer for the Welfare of King Jonathan and His Kingdom," Israel Exploration Journal 42 (1992), 199–229. Published in the official DJD series in Qumrân Cave 4, VI: Poetical and Liturgical Texts, Part 1 (DJD XI; Oxford: Clarendon, 2000).
The identification with Alexander Jannaeus rests on the script date and on the name Jonathan being the Hebrew name of the ruling Hasmonean king. Alexander Jannaeus ruled as both king and high priest, pursuing an aggressive territorial policy and facing internal opposition from the Pharisees. The prayer's existence raises the possibility that the Qumran community's relationship with this particular ruler was, at some point, cooperative — or at least not openly hostile. Some scholars have proposed that the text dates from early in Jannaeus' reign, before any rupture. Others note that the manuscript may simply reflect a conventional liturgical form, using a king's name without implying sectarian endorsement.
The Blood Rule applies: translated from the Hebrew. Base text: García Martínez & Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–98); Eshel et al., IEJ 42 (1992), consulted for context. The manuscript is heavily lacunose; only the phrase ליהונתן המלך and a small number of surrounding words are securely preserved. No conjectural restorations have been inserted.
Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026.
🌲
Source Text
4Q448 — Hebrew
Note: The manuscript is badly damaged throughout. Column B, with the mention of Jonathan the King, is the most legible section. The following presents the securely preserved and partially legible text; lacunae are marked [...]. Most lines are preserved only in fragments.
Column A (partial)
[...] שמ[ך הקדוש] לעולם [...]
[...] כל ה[עדה ]
[...]
Column B — Prayer for Jonathan the King
1. [ ] עיר הק[דש ]
2. [ ] כל עמ[ך ישראל ] הנפוצ[ים ]
3. [ ] לארבע[ה ] רוח[ות ]
4. [ ] לפניך [ ]
5. [ ] ליהונתן [ה]מלך [ ]
6. [ ] כל קהל עמך ישראל [ ]
7. [ ו]יהי שלום [ל]כולם [ו]למלכ[ותך ]
8. [ ]
Line 5 is the anchor of the manuscript: the phrase ליהונתן המלך (for/concerning Jonathan the King) is clearly legible. The surrounding lines are partially preserved; the reconstructions offered are based on standard scholarly readings (Eshel et al. 1992) and are conservative.
Column C (fragmentary)
[...] [isolated words only — untranslatable] [...]
Source Colophon
4Q448. Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Three columns. Published by Eshel, Eshel, and Yardeni, IEJ 42 (1992), 199–229; DJD XI (Clarendon, 2000). The phrase ליהונתן המלך (Col. B, line 5) is the most securely preserved text in the manuscript. All other transcription is partial and lacunose; restorations follow Eshel et al. (1992). Lacunae marked [...].
🌲