Isaiah, Chapter 40 (Great Isaiah Scroll, 1QIsa-a)
Introduction
Isaiah 40 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. XXXII (32), col. XXXIII (33), col. XXXIV (34) 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)
1נחמו נחמו עמי יואמר אלוהיכמה 2דברו על לב ירושלים וקראו אליהא כיא מלא צבאה כיא נרצא עוונה כיא לקחה מיד יהוה כפלים בכול חטאו̣תיה 3קול קורא במדבר פנו דרך יהוה וישרו בערבה מסלה לאלוהינו 4כול גי ינשא וכול הר וגבעה ישפלו והיה העקב למישור̣ והרוכסים לבקעה 5ונגלה כבוד יהוה וראו כול בשר יחדיו כיא פיא יהוה דבר 6קול אומר קרא ואומרה מה אקרא כול הבשר חציר וכול חסדיו כציצ השדה 7יבש חציר נבל ציצ ⟨כי רוח ···· נשבה בוא הכן חציר העם 8יבש חציל נבל ציצ ודבר אלוהינו⟩ {{ודבר}} אלוהינו יקום לעולם
1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. 3The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 6The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 7The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9על הר גבה עלי לכי מבשרת ציון הרימי בכוח קולך מבשרת ירושלים הרימי אל תיראי אמ⟨ו⟩רי לערי יהודה הנה אלוההכמה 10הנה אדוני יהוה בחוזק יבוא וזרועו משלה לוא הנה שכרו אתו ופעלתיו לפניו 11כרועה עדרו ירעה בזרועו יקבצ טלים ובחיקוה ישא עולות ינהל 12מיא מדד בשועלו מי ים ושמים בזרתו תכן וכל בשליש עפר הארץ ושקל בפלס הרים וגבעות במוזנים 13מיא תכן את רוח יהוה ⟨איש⟩ {{ו}}עצתו יודיענה 14את מי נועצ ויבינהו וילמדהו באורח משפט וילמדהו דעת ודרך תבונות יודיע̣נ̣ו̣ 15הן גואים כמר מדלי וכשחק מזנים נחשבו הן איים כדק ו̣יטול 16ולבנון אין די בער וחיתו אין די עולה
9O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! 10Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. 11He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. 12Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 13Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? 14With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? 15Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. 16And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17כול הגואים כאין נגדו וכאפס ותהוו נחשבו לו 18ואל מיא תדמיוני אל ומה דמות תערוכו לי 19הפסל ויעשה מסך חרש וצורף בזהב וירקענו ורתקות כסף צורף 20⟪המסכן תרומה⟫ עץ לוא ירבק ובחר חרש חכם ובשקלו להוכין פסל לוא ימוט 21הלוא תדעו הלוא תשמעו הלוא הוגד מרוש לכמה הלוא הבינותמה מוסדות ארץ 22היושב על חוג הארץ ויושביהא כחגבים הנוטה כדוק שמים וימתחם כאוהל לשבת 23הנותן רוזנים לאין שופטי ארץ כתהו עשה 24אפ בל נטעו אפ בל זרעו אפ בל שרשו בארץ גזעם גמ ⟨נ⟩{{ע}}שף בהמה וייבשו וסערה כקש תשאם
17All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. 18To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? 19The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. 20He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. 21Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 23That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. 24Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25אל מיא תדמיוני ואשוא יואמר קדוש 26שאו מרום עיניכמה וראו מי ברא אלה המוציא במספר צבאמ לכולם בשמ יקרא מרוב אונים ואמץ כוחו ואיש לוא נעדר 27למה תאומר יעקוב ותדבר ישראל נסתרה דרכי מיהוה ומאלוהי משפטי יעבור 28הלוא ידעתה אמ לוא שמעתה אלוהי עולם יהוה בורא קצוות הארץ לוא יעף ולוא יגע ואין חקר לתבונתיו 29הנותן ליעף כוח ולאין אונים עוצמה ירבה 30ויעפו נערים ויגעו ובחורים כשול יכשולו 31וקוי יהוה יחליפו כוח ויעלו אבר כנשרים ירוצו ולוא ייגעו ילכו ולוא יעופו
25To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. 26Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. 27Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
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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