E — Wisdom Literature

A Leader’s Lament (4Q439)

1A Leader's Lament (4Q439) Two small fragments have survived of a poetic lament by a person in authority. The text is too small to allow us to determine whether these are the words or pseudepigraphic words of a head of the sectarian community. For the editio princeps, see M. Weinfeld and D. Seely, DJD, XXIX, 335-41. Fr. 1 i I... [to] assemble the right[eous] of my people and to establish the way of life ... [to brin]g into the covenant the men of my company... my inheritance. Therefore my eyes are a spring of water... discipline and those who will stand up after them, who ... And behold my whole city has changed into thorns... [Be]hold all my judges have become fooli[sh] ... my righteous ones simple-minded, wh[o] ... traitors...