In the summer of 1947, a Bedouin in search of his lost goat stumbled into a cave near the Dead Sea and came up with what may prove to be one of the great archeological discoveries of the century, in the shape of eleven Hebrew scrolls of the pre-Christian era. If the dating is accurate—an eminent minority of scholars insists they are of much later origin—they are the oldest Hebrew manuscripts that have so far come to light, and their value for Jewish historical research is incalculable.
The eleven scrolls, upon scrutiny, turned out to be only seven, for some of them were sections of one scroll. They included the entire Book of Isaiah, a commentary on Habbakuk, a manual of discipline of an unidentified Hebrew sect,—a document tentatively identified as the Apocryphal Book of Lamech, a document telling of “The War of the Children of Light against the Children of Darkness,” a further fragment from Isaiah, and the scroll of hymns (called by Professor E. L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University—the first scholar to recognize the value of these scrolls—“The Scroll of Thanksgivings”).
It is from the last scroll that the two hymns published here are taken. The English rendering is by Meir Wallenstein, lecturer in medieval and modern Hebrew at the University of Manchester, and is reprinted by permission from the pamphlet “Hymns from the Judean Scrolls,” issued by the University Press, Manchester, in 1950.—Ed.
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I
I thank thee, O Lord,
for Thou holdest my soul in the bundle of life and Thou shelterest me
from all the snares of the pit
and from the wreckers who seek my life because I adhere to Thy
covenant.
And they are but a vain brood and a tribe of Belial.
They do not know that my standing is due to Thee and that Thou
with Thy mercies shalt deliver my soul,
for my steps are ordered by Thee.
Thou hast caused them to gather against my soul so that Thou may’st
be honored through judgment on the wicked
and thus Thou art fortified through me in the presence of the sons of
men for it is due to Thy mercy that I am alive.
But I said mighty men have encamped against me.
They have surrounded me with all the instruments of war and have
hurled down arrows without cessation
and the glittering of their spears was as a fire that consumeth wood
and as the roaring of many waters was the tumult of their voices even
as the sundering and the tempest to bring to destruction many people.
But as for the snares (they have spread) they will come to nothingness
and to vanity.
When their waves mount (against me) and when my heart melteth
like water my soul taketh strength in Thy covenant.
Thou wilt ensnare the feet of those who spread a net against me,
they will fall into the entanglements they have hidden for my soul,
but my foot standeth in an even place;
in the congregations will I bless Thy name.
II
I Thank Thee, O Lord,
for Thou hast delivered my soul from the pit and Thou hast brought
me forth from the underworld of Abaddon to the everlasting height.
And I shall walk in the unsought level-places and know that there is
an abode for him whom Thou hast formed out of dust in the company of
the everlasting.
Thou hast purified the perverted of spirit from the great transgression,
so that they may stand amongst the host of holy ones and appear together
with the congregation of the children of heaven.
Thou hast allotted to man an everlasting portion amongst the spirits
of wisdom in order that he may praise Thy name together with them, and
relate Thy wonders to all Thy creation.
And I, the clay-formed creature, what am I?
I, the kneaded with water, of what account am I?
And what is my strength that I have set myself within the bounds of
wickedness and in the lot with the planners of evil?
And the soul of the poor is moved with great disquiet and wrath’s
destruction accompanies my steps.
When all the snares of the pit were set and all the gins of wickedness
were spread and the net of evil design was flung upon the waters;
When all the arrows of the pit sped without hindrance and were
loosed leaving no hope;
When destruction overwhelms judgment and anger’s lot falls on the
forsaken and there is an outpouring of wrath on the innocent—
(then will come the) time of fury to all Belial and the pangs of death
will compass (people) about without deliverance and the floods of the
ungodly will overflow all channels of water.
Fire consumeth all their wells, destroying every green and withered
tree.
Their tributaries will glisten with sparks of flame until all their
foundations are no more.
It will devour the sources of its hot springs and the outstretching of
the dry land.
(It will turn) the bases of the hills to burning and the roots of flinty
stone into rivers of pitch.
It will consume till it reaches the Great Deep.
The rivers of Belial will burst through even to Abaddon and the
ranges of the primeval flood will roar with abundance of clots of mud and
clods of earth.
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