Isaiah, Chapter 17 (Great Isaiah Scroll, 1QIsa-a)
Introduction
Isaiah 17 from the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa), the complete copy of Isaiah found in Cave 1 at Qumran in 1947 and now in the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Copied around 125 BCE, it is roughly a thousand years older than the Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete Masoretic manuscript. This chapter stands in col. XIV (14) of the scroll's 54 columns.
- Scan: each section is shown with the actual column of the scroll that carries it, cropped from the Israel Museum / Google Art Project photograph of the whole scroll published on Wikimedia Commons (public domain). The column for every verse comes from the transcription itself, which records the column and line of each word.
- Hebrew: the scroll's own text, verbatim from the ETCBC dss Text-Fabric dataset (Jacobs, Naaijer and Roorda, from Martin G. Abegg Jr.'s transcription; CC BY-NC 4.0). This is not the Masoretic text: 1QIsaa uses a fuller spelling (for example לוא for לא, כיא for כי) and differs from the Masoretic text in a number of readings. No vowel points exist in the scroll and none are added. Marks: ⟨x⟩ letters the scribe added above the line, [x] modern reconstruction of text lost to damage, {{x}} letters cancelled by an ancient scribe, ⟪x⟫ an ancient correction, a dot under a letter (x̣) an uncertain reading, ···· four dots written in place of the divine name (Tetrapuncta).
- English: the King James Version (1611, public domain), verbatim from bible-api.com. The KJV translates the Masoretic text, so where the scroll reads differently the English will not match the Hebrew shown; the scroll's reading can be checked on the column image.
How was this verified? (Provenance)
1משא דרמשק הנה דרמשק מוסר מעיר והיית מעי מפלה 2עזובות ערי עורערו לעדרים תהינה ורבצו ואין מחריד 3ונשבת מבצר מאפרים וממלכה מדרמשק ושאר ארם ככבוד בני ישראל יהיה נואם יהוה צבאות 4והיה ביום ההוא ידל כבוד י⟨ע⟩קוב ומשמן בשרו ירזה 5והיה כאסף קציר קמה וזרעו שבלים וקציר והיה כמלקט שבלים בעמק רפאים 6ונשאר בו עוללות כנקף זית שנים שלושה גד̣גרים בר⟨ו⟩אש אמיר ארבעה חמשה בסעפי פריה נואמ יהוה אלוהי ישראל 7ב̣יום ההוא ישעה האדם על עושוהי ועיניו אל קדוש ישראל תראינה
1The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts. 4And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel. 7At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8ולוא ישעה על המזבחות מעשיו אשר עשו̣ אצבעו̣תיו ולוא יראה האשרים והחמנים 9ביום ההוא יהיו ערי מעוז̣ו̣ כעזובות החרש ⟨ו⟩האמיר אשר עזבו מפני בני ישראל והייתה שממה 10כי שכחתי אלוהי ישעך וצור מעוזך לוא זכרת עלכן תטעי נטעי נעמונים וזמורת זר תז̣ר̣⟨ו̣⟩ע̣נו̣ 11ביום נטעך תשג̣שגשי ובבקר זרעך תפ̣ריחי נד קציר ביום נחלה וכאוב אנוש 12הוי המון עמים רבים כהמות ימים יהמיון ושאון לאומים כשאון מים כבדים ושאון 13לאומים כשאון מים רבים ישאון ויגער בו ונס ממרחק ורדף כמץ הרים לפני רוח וכגלגל לפני סופה 14לעת ערב והנה בלהה בטרמ בקר ואיננו זה חלק שוסינו וגורל לבוזזינו
8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. 9In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. 10Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: 11In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 12Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 14And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
Cite
Source & Cross-References
- Source text: Great Isaiah Scroll 1QIsa-a: Israel Museum / Google Art Project photograph (Wikimedia Commons, PD) + ETCBC dss transcription (Abegg; CC BY-NC 4.0) + KJV (bible-api.com) — view original
- Critical edition: ETCBC Dead Sea Scrolls transcription (Abegg data, CC BY-NC 4.0)
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