Lamentations (DSS)

Lamentations Dead Sea Scrolls

3Q3 Lamentations

Contents: Lamentations 1:10-12; 3:53, 56, 59, 62

Language: Hebrew

Date: 30 B.C. - 68 A.D.

Location: Qumran Cave 3

Lamentations 1

10 The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things;

for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,

concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

11 All her people sigh.

They seek bread.

They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul.

“Look, Yahweh, and see;

for I have become despised.”

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

which is brought on me,

with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

[..]

Lamentations 3

53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon,

and have cast a stone on me.

[..]

56 You heard my voice:

“Don’t hide your ear from my sighing,

and my cry.”

[..]

59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong.

Judge my cause.

[..]

62 the lips of those that rose up against me,

and their plots against me all day long.

4Q111 Lamentations

Contents: Lamentations 1:1-18; 2:5

Language: Hebrew

Date: 30 - 1 B.C.

Location: Qumran Cave 4

Lamentations 1

1 How the city sits solitary,

that was full of people!

She has become as a widow,

who was great among the nations!

She who was a princess among the provinces

has become a slave!

2 She weeps bitterly in the night.

Her tears are on her cheeks.

Among all her lovers

she has no one to comfort her.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.

They have become her enemies.

3 Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction,

and because of great servitude.

She dwells among the nations.

She finds no rest.

All her persecutors overtook her within the straits.

4 The roads to Zion mourn,

because no one comes to the solemn assembly.

All her gates are desolate.

Her priests sigh.

Her virgins are afflicted,

and she herself is in bitterness.

5 Her adversaries have become the head.

Her enemies prosper;

for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.

Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.

6 All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion.

Her princes have become like deer that find no, no pasture.

They have gone without strength before the pursuer.

7 Jerusalem Yahweh remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all our pains

all her pleasant things that were from the days of old;

when her people fell into the hand of the adversary,

and no one helped her.

The Her adversaries saw her.

They mocked at all her desolations.

8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned.

Therefore she has become unclean.

All who honored her despise her,

because they have seen her nakedness.

Yes, she sighs, and turns backward.

9 Her filthiness was in her skirts.

She didn’t remember her latter end.

Therefore she has come down astoundingly.

She has no comforter.

“See, Yahweh, my affliction;

for the enemy has magnified himself.”

10 The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things;

for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,

concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

11 All her people sigh.

They seek bread.

They have given their Her[1] pleasant things are for food to refresh their her soul.

“Look, Yahweh, and see;

for I have become despised.”

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

which is brought on me,

with which Yahweh has afflicted frightened me in the day of his fierce anger.

13 “From on high has he sent fire into my bones,

and it prevails against them.

He has spread a net for my feet.

He has turned me back.

He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.

14 “The yoke of It was bound about my transgressions is bound by his hand.

They are His yoke is knit together.

They have come up on my neck.

He made my strength fail.

The Lord Yahweh has delivered me into their hands, the hand of

against whom I am not able to stand.

15 “The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me.

He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men.

The Lord Yahweh has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.

16 “For these things I weep.

My eye, my eye runs down with water,

because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.

My children are desolate,

because the enemy has prevailed.”[2]

17 Zion spreads out her hands.

There is no one to comfort her from all her lovers. You are righteous,

Yahweh; the Lord has commanded kept watch concerning Jacob,

that those who are around him should be his adversaries.

Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

Zion has been banished from among them.

16 “For these things I my eyes weep.

My eye, my eye tears runs down with water,

because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.

My children are desolate,

because the enemy has prevailed.”

18 “Yahweh The Lord is righteous;

for I have rebelled against his commandment.

Please hear all you peoples,

and see my sorrow.

My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

[..]

Lamentations 2

5 The Lord has become as an enemy.

He has swallowed up Israel.

He has swallowed up all her palaces.

He has destroyed his strongholds.

He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah.

[1] Verse 11 of the scroll does not begin with the Hebrew letter “kaf,” and therefore breaks up the acrostic pattern of the chapter.

[2] The scroll places verse 17 before verse 16. The chapter is an acrostic, with each letter beginning with a sequential letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Verses 16 and 17 in the scroll begin with the Hebrew letters “pe” and “ayin,” respectively, reversing the modern Hebrew alphabetic order. However, some ancient inscriptions place “pe” before “ayin,” and Lamentations chapters 2, 3 and 4 do as well, so the switch is not without precedent.

5Q6 Lamentations

Contents: Lamentations 4:5-8, 11-16, 19-22; 5:1-13, 16-17

Language: Hebrew

Date: About 50 A.D.

Location: Qumran Cave 5

Lamentations 4

5 Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets.

Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills.

6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom,

which was overthrown as in a moment.

No hands were laid on her.

7 Her nobles were purer than snow.

They were whiter than milk.

They were more ruddy in body than rubies.

Their polishing was like sapphire.

8 Their appearance is blacker than a coal.

They are not known in the streets.

Their skin clings to their bones.

It is withered.

It has become like a stick.

[..]

11 Yahweh has accomplished his wrath.

He has poured out his fierce anger.

He has kindled a fire in Zion,

which has devoured its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth didn’t believe,

neither did all the inhabitants of the world,

that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

13 It is because of the sins of her prophets

and the iniquities of her priests,

That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.

14 They wander as blind men in the streets.

They are polluted with blood,

So that men can’t touch their garments.

15 “Go away!” they cried to them.

“Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don’t touch!

When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations,

“They can’t live here any more.”

16 Yahweh’s anger has scattered them.

He will not pay attention to them any more.

They didn’t respect the persons of the priests.

They didn’t favor the elders.

[..]

19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky.

They chased us on the mountains.

They set an ambush for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our nostrils,

the anointed of Yahweh,

was taken in their pits;

of whom we said,

under his shadow we will live among the nations.

21 Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom,

that dwells in the land of Uz.

The cup will pass through to you also.

You will be drunken,

and will make yourself naked.

22 The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion.

He will no more carry you away into captivity.

He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom.

He will uncover your sins.

Lamentations 5

1 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us.

Look, and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our houses to aliens.

3 We are orphans and fatherless.

Our mothers are as childless and widows.

4 We have drunken our water for money.

Our wood is sold to us.

5 Our pursuers are on our necks.

We are weary, and have no rest.

6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians,

and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more.

We have borne their iniquities.

8 Servants rule over us.

There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.

9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin is black like an oven,

because of the burning heat of famine.

11 They ravished the women in Zion,

the virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hanged up by their hands.

The faces of elders were not honored.

13 The young men carry millstones.

The children stumbled under loads of wood.

[..]

16 The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

17 For this our heart is faint.

For these things our eyes are dim.

5Q7 Lamentations

Contents: Lamentations 4:17-20

Language: Hebrew

Date: Before 30 B.C - 68 A.D.

Location: Qumran Cave 5

Lamentations 4

17 Our eyes still fail,

looking in vain for our help.

In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

18 They hunt our steps,

so that we can’t go in our streets.

Our end is near.

Our days are fulfilled,

for our end has come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky.

They chased us on the mountains.

They set an ambush for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our nostrils,

the anointed of Yahweh,

was taken in their pits;

of whom we said,

under his shadow we will live among the nations.