4Q215 (4QTestament of Naphtali)
She bore me.
— 4Q215 Fragment 1, line 11
The Testament of Naphtali (4Q215) is a Cave 4 Hebrew composition preserving the first-person autobiography of the patriarch Naphtali, son of Jacob and Bilhah. The surviving fragment — a single manuscript leaf, heavily damaged — gives the genealogical narrative of Naphtali's mother: how Bilhah was connected to Laban's household, how Jacob came fleeing from Esau, how Bilhah was given to Jacob as a concubine, and how she bore Dan and then Naphtali himself.
The text is a Hebrew witness to a genealogical tradition known in Greek through the Testament of Naphtali in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (T.Naph. 1:9–12), but the two versions diverge significantly. The Greek tradition makes Bilhah the daughter of Rotheus the Chaldean; the Hebrew Qumran version makes her the niece of Laban — daughter of a sister of Laban whose name may have been Deborah. The Zilpah narrative is also distinctive: her name is connected to a city, not to a personal genealogy. Naphtali speaks throughout in the first person, giving his own family history as part of a larger autobiographical testament.
The manuscript is too damaged for continuous translation through all sections. Only the main fragment yields recoverable text; the critical lines are preserved with much of the narrative backbone intact. All lacunae are marked [...]. No text has been supplied or reconstructed beyond what the Hebrew line contains.
Fragment 1
Lines 1–5 — The Origins of Bilhah
[...] with the sisters of my father — Bilhah, whose relative was Deborah, who acquired her [...] sister of Laban [...]
And [Jacob] walked into captivity; and Laban sent and separated them; and he gave him one from his maidservants as wife, and she bore a daughter.
[The] first [wife], and he gave her the name Zilpah — in the name of the city of Zilpah who returned to [...] And she [...]
And she conceived and gave birth to Bilhah my mother; and called her name Bilhah, because as the one who bore her was [born], so was she.
Why are you hurrying? She is my daughter — and she is still called Bilhah.
Lines 7–11 — Jacob Comes to Laban; Bilhah Given to Jacob
And when Jacob my father came fleeing from before his brother Esau to Laban [...] the sisters [of him ...] Bilhah my mother — Laban gave [to him ...] my mother [...] and gave one [...] to Leah [...] and as [the maid] who did not give birth to Rachel in her lifetime [...]
And she pleased Jacob; and he gave him Bilhah my mother [...] and she bore Dan; and after him
she bore me.
Colophon
The Testament of Naphtali — Genealogy of Bilhah (4Q215, 4QTNaph)
Hebrew. Cave 4, Qumran. Single manuscript fragment. The text is the first-person testimony of the patriarch Naphtali recounting his mother Bilhah's family history within Laban's household.
Scholarly significance: The Hebrew Qumran version presents a genealogical tradition independent of the Greek Testament of Naphtali (T.Naph. 1:9–12), where Bilhah's father is given as Rotheus the Chaldean. In 4Q215, Bilhah is niece to Laban — daughter of a sister of his household — making her more fully integrated into the patriarchal family narrative. The figure of Deborah in line 1 may be connected to the nurse Deborah of Genesis 35:8; the etymology of "Zilpah" from a city name is unparalleled elsewhere in Second Temple literature.
Translated from Hebrew. Source text: Qimron Composite Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0). Stone, M. E., "The Genealogy of Bilhah," Dead Sea Discoveries 3 (1996), pp. 20–36. Editio princeps: Milik, DJD I (1955), supplemented by Stone 1996.
Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026.
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Source Text
4Q215 Fragment 1 — Hebrew
Fragment 1
Hebrew reconstructed from the Qimron Composite Edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0). The manuscript uses plene spelling throughout (יעקוב, עשיו). Lacunae marked [...]. The text is written in an early Herodian hand.
ל׳ 1 [...] עם אחיות אבי בלהה — מי דודו — זה דבורה אשר [לקחה?] את [...] אחות לבן [...]
ל׳ 2 [...] וילך בשבי וישלח לבן ויפרק[ו] ויתן לו את [אחת] מאמהותיו [לאשה] ותלד בת
ל׳ 3 [הרא]שונה ויתן את זלפה שמה בשם [ה]עיר אשר שבה [ל]אל [...] ותשוב [יה/אל אביה]
ל׳ 4 ותהר ותלד את בלהה אמי ותקרא [את] שמה בלהה כי כאשר כולדּ [כן] היתה
ל׳ 5 מתבהלת ליוק מתבהלת ותואמר מה היאה בתי — ותקרא עוד בלהה [...]
ל׳ 6 [...]
ל׳ 7 [...] וכאשר בא יעקוב אבי בורח מלפי עשיו אחיהו אל לבן [...]נ [...] ת אחיות
ל׳ 8 [...] א[נ]י בלהה אמי ויהג לבן את [...] אמי [...] ואם [...] ויתן [...] אחת [...]
ל׳ 9 [ללאה] [...] וכאשר [צ]ל^ה[?] [...] לוא ילדה לרחל [בחיי]ה [...]
ל׳ 10 [...] ותרץ את יעקוב [ויתן] לו את בלהה אמי [...] ותלד את דן ואחריו
ל׳ 11 ילדה אותי
Source Colophon
4Q215 (4QTestament of Naphtali). Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Single manuscript fragment. Editio princeps: J. T. Milik in D. Barthélemy and J. T. Milik, Qumran Cave 1 (DJD I; Oxford: Clarendon, 1955). Major study: M. E. Stone, "The Genealogy of Bilhah," Dead Sea Discoveries 3/1 (1996), pp. 20–36, which provides the critical edition of the Cave 4 material. Source text extracted from: Elisha Qimron, The Hebrew Writings from Qumran: Composite Edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0, 2020).
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