Words of the book which Michael spoke to the angels [...] I found there troops of fire [...] nine mountains, two to the East and two to the West and two to the North and two to the South. There I saw the angel Gabriel [...] In the book of my Great One, the Lord Eternal, it is written: Behold [...]
Michael's account:
Words of the book which Michael spoke to the angels [...]
He said: [I] found there troops of fire [...] There
[I saw] nine mountains: two to the East, and two to the West, and two to the North, and two
to the South. There I saw the angel Gabriel [...]
in ... and I showed him his vision. And he said to me: [...]
In the book of my Great One, the Lord Eternal, it is written: Behold
The content of the divine book:
[...] between the sons of Ham and the sons of Shem. And behold, my Great One, the Lord Eternal [...]
when keshabin tear from azdara (?) [...]
And behold, a city will be built to the name of my Great One, the Lord Eternal [...]
all that is wicked shall be done before my Great One, the Lord Eternal [...]
And my Great One, the Lord Eternal, will remember his creation [...]
to my Great One, the Lord Eternal — to him the mercy, and to him [...]
In the distant province there will be a man [...]
he; and he will say to him: Behold, this [...]
[...] to me silver and gold [...] and he will say [...]
[and] the righteous man [...]
Colophon
Text: 4Q529 (4QWords of Michael, Aramaic), Cave 4. Also associated with 6Q23 (Cave 6). One manuscript of sixteen partially preserved lines; also known as ROC 164. Published in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXXI (É. Puech, 2001) and discussed by J. Starcky, J.T. Milik (The Books of Enoch, 91), R. Eisenman and M. Wise (The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, 37–39), and K. Beyer (ATTME, 127–128).
Words of Michael is the only Dead Sea Scroll that presents Michael — the archangel of Israel, chief intercessor and protector of the covenant people in Daniel 10:13–21 — as the speaker of a formal revelatory address to the angelic court. The opening formula, "words of the book which Michael spoke to the angels," echoes the celestial book tradition common to Enochic literature: the divine will is inscribed in a heavenly register and revealed through angelic mediation.
The vision of nine mountains, two to each cardinal direction plus one, finds a close parallel in the Enochic Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 18:6–8; 24:1–3), where the seer is also guided through a cosmological landscape of mountains. Gabriel's appearance as co-participant in the vision recalls Daniel 8:16 and 9:21, where Gabriel is the interpreting angel who explains cosmic events to the prophet. The two archangels Michael and Gabriel appear here together, as in Daniel 10, where Michael is the guardian-prince of Israel and Gabriel brings understanding.
The divine title rabi mara 'alma (רבי מרא עלמא, "my Great One, the Lord Eternal") appears six times in lines 7–12, creating a doxological refrain unique in the Qumran corpus. The title fuses rabba ("the Great One," used of God in Daniel 2:45 and Aramaic Enoch) with mare 'alma ("Lord Eternal" or "Lord of the World," from the Aramaic mare + 'alma). This formulation — God's greatness, lordship, and eternity compressed into a single honorific — underscores the theological weight of what the book reveals.
Lines 7–16 present the book's content as a nationological and eschatological oracle. The division between the sons of Ham and the sons of Shem follows the Table of Nations (Genesis 10), the framework within which ancient Israel understood the organization of humanity. The city built to the name of the Lord Eternal is most plausibly Jerusalem — the city given God's name in 1 Kings 8:43 and the constant object of eschatological expectation in Second Temple literature. Divine remembrance of creation (line 11) and the attribution of mercy exclusively to God (line 12) are standard Qumran theological affirmations, shared with the Thanksgiving Hymns and the Damascus Document. The "man in a distant province" (גברא במדינתא רחיקתא, line 13) and the "righteous man" (צדיקא, line 16) may be one figure — a Diaspora-dwelling righteous individual who becomes the subject of a divine message delivered through this chain of angelic mediation.
Lines 8's keshabin and azdara (or similar readings) are hapax legomena not securely identified; the DSSE translates them by transliteration alone. They may be place names, cosmic forces, or technical terms whose referents have not survived in any parallel text.
Translation: Good Works Translation from Aramaic by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Aramaic transcription consulted in García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–1999), vol. 2, pp. 1060–1062.
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Source Text
4Q529 — מלי כתבא די אמר מיכאל למלאכיא
Aramaic transcription from García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2, pp. 1060–1062 (Brill, 1997–1999). Square brackets indicate lacunae or restorations.
מלי כתבא די אמר מיכאל למלאכיא [... ]. 1
אמר די גדודי נורא תמה 2
]חזית[ תשעה טורין תרין למדנ]חא ותרין למערבא[ 3
]ותרין לצפונא ותרין לדר[ומא תמה חזית לגבריאל מלאכ]א …[ 4
[...] ב… והחזיתה חזוה ואמר לי 5
בספרי די רבי מרא עלמא כתיב הא [...] 6
]…[ בין בני חם לבני שם והא רבי מרא עלמא [...] 7
כדי כשבין דמעא [...] 8
והא מתבניה קריה לשמה די רבי ]מרא עלמא …[ 9
]… יתעבד כל די באיש קודם רבי מר[א עלמא 10
וידכר רבי מרא עלמא לבריתה [...] 11
]לר[בי מרא עלמא לה רחמין ולה [...] 12
[...] במדינתא רחיקתא להוא גברא 13
הוא ולהוא אמר לה הא דן [...] 14
]…[ה ויאמ]ר[ לי כספא ודהבא ]…[ 15
]ו[צדיקא [...] 16
Notes
Line 1: מלי כתבא = "words of the book/document." מיכאל = Michael. למלאכיא = "to the angels." The form mele kitba (words of a book) closely parallels the Enochic introduction "these are the words of the book of Enoch" (1 En. 1:1).
Lines 3–4: תשעה טורין = "nine mountains." The four cardinal directions with two mountains each yield eight; the ninth is unstated in this fragment. The cosmological mountain tour parallels 1 Enoch 18:6–8.
Line 4: גבריאל מלאכא = "Gabriel the angel." The encounter of Michael and Gabriel recalls Daniel 10:13–21.
Line 6: רבי מרא עלמא = "my Great One, the Lord Eternal." This epithet recurs six times (lines 6–12), forming the theological spine of the oracle. Rabi = "Great One" (cf. Aramaic rabba); mare 'alma = "Lord of eternity/the world."
Line 7: בני חם לבני שם = "the sons of Ham ... the sons of Shem" — the Table of Nations division (Genesis 10). The oracle apparently establishes divine governance of both lineages.
Line 8: כשבין and אזדרא are unidentified terms, left in transliteration by the DSSE editors; their meaning is uncertain.
Line 9: קריה לשמה = "a city to his name" — Jerusalem, the city given God's name (1 Kings 8:43; cf. Jer 25:29).
Line 11: לבריתה = "to/for his creation" (root ברא). Divine remembrance of creation is a standard Qumran theological affirmation.
Line 13: מדינתא רחיקתא = "a distant province." The term medinta is the standard Aramaic for a territorial administrative unit.
Line 16: צדיקא = "the righteous man/the just one." Possibly the same figure introduced in line 13.
Source Colophon
Source: Aramaic. Cave 4, Qumran (4Q529); associated with 6Q23 (Cave 6). DJD XXXI (Puech, 2001). Transcription: García Martínez and Tigchelaar, DSSE (1997–1999), vol. 2.
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