Isaiah, Chapter 34 (Great Isaiah Scroll, 1QIsa-a)
Introduction
Isaiah 34 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. XXVIII (28) 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)
1קרובו גואים לשמוע ולאומים הקשיבו תשמע הארצ ומלואה תבל וכול צאצאיה 2כיא קצפ ליהוה על כול הגואים וחמה על כול צבאם החרימם ונתנם לטב⟨ו⟩ח 3וחלליהם יושלכו ופגריהמה יעלה באושמה ונמסו ההרים מדמם 4והעמקים יתבקעו וכול צבא השמים יפולו ונגלו כספר השמים וכול צבאם יבול כנובל עלה מגופן וכנובלת מן תאנה 5כיא תראה בשמים חרביא הנה על אדום תרד ועל עמ חרמי למשפט 6חרב ליהוה מלאה דם הדשנה מחלב מדם כרים ועתודים מחלב כלאיות אילים כיא זבח ליהוה בבוצרה וטבח גדול בארץ אדום 7וירדו ראמים עממ ופרים עם אבירים ורותה ארצםה מדם ועפרם מחלב ידשן 8כיא יום נקם ליהוה שנת שלומים לריב ציון 9ונהפכו נחליה לזפת ועפרה לגפרית והייתה ארצה לזפת ובערה
1Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. 2For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. 3Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. 5For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. 6The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. 7And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. 8For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. 9And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10לילה ויוםם ולוא תכובה לעולם ו̣עלה עשנה מדור לדור ותחרב לנצח נצחים ואין עובר בהא 11וירשוהה קאת וקפוד וינשוף ועורב ישכונו בהא ונטא עליהא קו ותהו ואבני בהו 12וחריה ואין שמה מלוכה יקראו וכול שריה יהיו {{כ}}אפס 13ועלתה ארמ⟨ו⟩נותיה סירים קמוש וחוח במבצריהא והייתה נוה תנים חצר לבנות יענה 14ופגשו ציים את אייאמים ושעיר על רעהו יקרא אכ שמה ירגיעו ליליות ומצאו להמה מנוח 15שמה קננה קופד ותמלט ובקעה ודגרה בצלה אכ אכ שמה נקבצו דוות אשה רעותה 16דרושו מעל ספר יהוה וקראו ואחת לוא נעדרה אשה רעותה כיא פיהו הוא צוה ורוחהו היאה קבצם̣ 17והואה הפיל להנה גורל וידיו חלקת לה{{מ}}⟨נ⟩ה בקו עד עולם ⟨ירשוה⟩ (-א-) ⟪לדור ודור ישכנו בה
10It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 11But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 12They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 13And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 14The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 15There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. 16Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. 17And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
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)
← previous · → next · v cycle view · l back to library