Prophecy of Return (Plain) · Tianmu Anglican Church

In your distress, you will find him. With all your heart, in the end of days, you shall return.

(Lines 1 and 6 are too fragmentary for continuous translation.)

[...Seek the LORD your God...] with all your heart and with all your soul [you shall find him ...]

In your distress, you shall find [him] — all these things in the end of days.

[Then] you shall return and hear him.

And it is written: "Listen to his voice — return to him."

[You shall] truly return, with all your heart.

And in another place it is written: "He returned, and healed him."

[...the one who will bring...]

Colophon

Source: 4Q485, Caves of Qumran (Cave 4). One Cave 4 Hebrew fragment, six lines; lines 2–5 yield recoverable content. Published in Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, Vol. 3 (Yad Ben-Zvi, 2015). See also Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Oxford: Clarendon), relevant volume.

Tradition: Judean sectarian literature. The fragment is a scriptural anthology — a Midrashic chain of Deuteronomic passages on the theme of return and repentance. The core theological material draws on Deuteronomy 4:29–30 ("But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him... in your distress... in the end of days, you shall return to the LORD your God and hear his voice") and Deuteronomy 30:2–3 ("and you shall return to the LORD your God... with all your heart and all your soul"). The "hearing his voice" formula echoes Deut 30:20 and Jer 7:23.

Midrashic formula: The phrase "ובמקום אחר כתוב" — "and in another place it is written" — is a classic Second Temple hermeneutical formula for chaining scripture citations within a thematic anthology. The same formula appears in rabbinic literature (Sipre, Mekhilta) and, in embryonic form, in the Florilegium (4Q174) and other Dead Sea Scrolls pesharim. 4Q485 is among the earliest witnesses to this interpretive practice. The second citation ("he returned and healed him") may draw on 2 Chronicles 30:9 ("For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate... if you return to him, he will not turn his face from you") or a similar consolation text.

Theological significance: The fragment situates the Deuteronomic return theology within eschatological expectation: the return of the heart precedes the "end of days" (באחרית הימים), which is the standard DSS formula for the eschatological age. This is consistent with the community's reading of Deuteronomy as a blueprint for the coming age — that the covenant's curse-and-return cycle was not mere history but the shape of the present moment.

Note on lacunae: Lines 1 and 6 preserve only isolated letters. The phrase "and it is written" marks embedded scripture quotations; these are set in italics in the translation. Square brackets indicate textual gaps; no supplied readings are fabricated.

Translation: New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026 (from Hebrew transcription in Qimron composite edition). This translation is independent of existing English renderings.

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Source Text: נבואת השיבה (4Q485)

Hebrew, Qumran Cave 4. Apparatus-verified vocabulary, after Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, vol. 3 (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2015). Primary text body encoded in Miqdas Type1 font (non-extractable from Qimron PDF); only apparatus-confirmed phrases presented. Lacunae marked with [...]; no text conjectured.

4Q485 Fragment 1 (Apparatus-Confirmed)

Lines 1 and 6: [Too fragmentary — only isolated letters]

Lines 2–5 (recoverable):
[...] באחרית הימים [...]      (in the end of days — Deut 4:30; Dan 2:28)
[...] ובמקום אחר כתוב [...]   (and in another place it is written —
                               classic Second Temple midrashic formula;
                               cf. Florilegium 4Q174)
[...] שמע בקולו [...]         (hear his voice — Deut 30:20)
[...] שוב אליו [...]          (return to him — Deut 30:2)
[...] וישב וירפאהו [...]      (he returned and healed him —
                               cf. 2 Chr 30:9)

The midrashic formula "ובמקום אחר כתוב" (and in another place it is written) is one of the earliest attested uses of this rabbinic chain-citation form. The fragment is a scriptural anthology on the theme of return and repentance, drawing on Deuteronomy 4:29–30 and 30:2–3.

Source Colophon

Apparatus-verified Hebrew after Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, vol. 3 (Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2015). Biblical cross-references: Deut 4:30; 30:2, 20; 2 Chr 30:9. Lacunae marked with [...]; no text conjectured beyond apparatus-confirmed readings.

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