4Q175

Testimonia

Dead Sea Scrolls · 160 B.C.E. - 60 B.C.E.

Based on the text provided by Martin G. Abegg Jr., James E. Bowley, and Edward M. Cook (CC BY-NC 4.0)

This short document from Cave 4, dating to the early first century BCE and similar in literary style to the Christian Testimonia or collections of messianic proof-texts, includes five quotations arranged in four groups. Only the last of them is followed by an interpretation. The first group consists of two texts from Deuteronomy referring to the prophet similar to Moses; the second is an extract from a prophecy of Balaam about the Royal Messiah; the third is a blessing of the Levites and, implicitly, of the Priest-Messiah.

Column 1

1 [1]The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “You have heard the sound of the words of 2 this people, which they spoke to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. 3 If only this heart of theirs would remain, to fear me and [2]to keep all 4 my commandments always, so that it may go well with them and with their children forever. 5 [3]I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words 6 in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him. And the man 7 who does not listen to my words, which the prophet speaks in my name, I myself 8 will call him to account.” 9 And he took up his oracle and said, “The utterance of Balaam son of Beor, the utterance of the man 10 whose eye is perfect, the utterance of one who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who 11 sees the vision of the Almighty, fallen down with eyes uncovered. I see him, but not now; 12 I behold him, but not near. [4]A star shall march out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and it shall crush 13 the temples of Moab and tear down all the sons of Seth.” 14 And of Levi he said, “Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your faithful one, whom 15 you tested at Massah and with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah, who said of his father, ‘I have not 16 … him,’ and to his mother, ‘I do not know you.’ His brothers he did not acknowledge, and his son he did not 17 know. For he kept your word and guarded your covenant. [5]They shall make your judgments shine for Jacob, 18 your Torah for Israel. They shall set incense before you and a whole offering on your altar. 19 Bless, O LORD, his strength, and accept the work of his hands. Crush the loins of his adversaries, and those who hate him, 20 so that they do not rise.” 21 At the time when Joshua finished praising and giving thanks with his praises, 22 he said, “[6]Cursed be the man who rebuilds this city. With his firstborn 23 he shall lay its foundation, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates.” And behold, a cursed man, one of Belial, 24 is rising to be a fowler’s snare to his people and a ruin to all his neighbors. And there will arise 25 […] … so that the two of them may be instruments of violence. And they will rebuild 26 [this city] and set up for it a wall and towers, to make it a stronghold of wickedness 27 [and a great evil] in Israel, and a horror in Ephraim and in Judah. 28 […] and they will commit profanation in the land, and great blasphemy among the sons of 29 [Jacob. They will shed] blood like water on the rampart of the daughter of Zion and within the boundary of 30 […] Jerusalem.

Glossary