4Q108

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4Q108 (or 4QCantc) is a fragment containing a portion of the Song of Songs in Hebrew. Fragments from three such scrolls were found in Cave 4 at Qumran. These, and 6Q6 from Cave 6, comprise the total witness to the Song from the Dead Sea Scrolls, known so far.

Contents

[edit] Identification

It is evident that 4Q108 is not from the other two manuscripts of the Song found in the cave. The last two words of Song 3:7, g'bore Israel ("warriors of Israel") are already accounted for in 4Q106; and the letters of 4Q107 are formed by an observably different hand to 4Q108. The manner of composition (Wiktionary:ductus) of the letters aleph and shin differs between the manuscripts. Additionally, the lacuna in the second column of 4Q107 does not provide enough space to accommodate 4Q108.

[edit] Contents

4Q108 is a "tiny fragment"[1] containing only ten letters from two lines — five letters each from verses seven and eight of chapter three. The five letters from verse seven are: למה lmh, the last three letters of the name Solomon; and שש šš (shesh), the six in the word sixty. The five letters from verse eight are a single word אחוזי aḥuzi, the passive participle of the verb meaning grasp. So 4Q108 reads:

  • [7Behold the seat of So]lomon six[ty warriors surrounding it, from the warriors of]
  • [Israel, 8all of them] equipped [with sword ...]

[edit] Features

  • The Masoretic Text spells the verb of verse seven with only four letters; 4Q108, however, contains a consonant (vav) representing one of the distinctive vowels (IPA: [u]) of the passive participle.
  • The passive construction used here — aḥuzi ḥereb (grasped of sword) — is not unique to either the Song (see Ezekiel 43:6) or to Hebrew.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Eugene Charles Ulrich and others (eds), Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Volume XVI: Psalms to Chronicles: Qumran Cave 4.XI, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001): 219. ISBN 978-0-19-826943-4
  2. ^ Y Blau, Leshonenu 18 (1950-1952): 67-81. (Hebrew)

[edit] External links