Scrolls from Qumran Cave I

High-resolution color photograph of a section of the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa^a). The image displays three columns of ancient Hebrew text written on leather parchment. The middle column is the most intact, while the flanking columns are fragmentary due to irregular vertical tears and deterioration at the edges. The script is a formal Judean bookhand from the late Second Temple period.

... the youth the bitterness?
... for him and he seized?
... desire and he asked?
... in our years?
... the hand of the city of Aroer?
... there is strength and in the lowest?
... the [sign] the land?
... broken and after it?
... Israel the Holy?
... to my people and the voice?
... shall encamp not worthy and the house?
... from the land, a land of strength?

1. curds and honey he shall eat when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows
2. to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread shall be forsaken.
3. And the LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house days
4. such as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.
5. And it shall come to pass in that day that the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams
6. of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come and settle all of them in the valleys,
7. the steep cliffs, in the clefts of the rocks, and in all the thornbushes, and in all the pastures.
8. In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired, beyond the River, with the king
9. of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, and also the beard he shall consume.
10. And it shall come to pass in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow and two sheep; and it shall be,
11. from the abundance of making milk he shall eat curds; for curds and honey shall eat everyone
12. who is left in the midst of the land.
13. And it shall come to pass in that day that every place where there shall be a thousand vines
14. worth a thousand silverlings, it shall be for brier and thorn. With arrows and with bows shall one come
15. there, for brier and thorn shall be the whole land. And all the mountains
16. that used to be hoed with a hoe, you shall not come there for fear of brier and thorn;
17. but it shall be for the pasturing of oxen and for the treading of sheep.
18. Then the LORD said to me, "Take for yourself a large tablet and write upon it with a stylus of
19. a man: 'To Maher-shalal-hash-baz.' And I will take for myself faithful witnesses,
20. Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah." And I drew near to
21. the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Call
22. his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, for before the child knows how to cry
23. 'my father' and 'my mother,' one shall carry away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria
24. before the king of Assyria."
25. And the LORD spoke to me again, saying: "Because this people has refused
26. the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
27. my Lord; therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up upon them the waters of the River,
28. the mighty and many—the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it shall rise
29. over all its channels and go over all its banks, and it shall pass through Judah;
30. it shall overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck; and the breadth of its wings shall be full?

1. and pass on, reaching even to the neck.
2. And on his wings he shall...
3. with us, with us, God.
4. counsel, nor speak, and it shall not
5. you shall not call conspiracy
6. and you shall not fear their
7. fear, and he shall be
8. for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense for
9. and for our multitude
10. the stumbling block; and many among them
11. and shall be snared. Bind up the testimony
12. in my disciples.
13. And I will wait for the LORD
14. and behold, I and the children
15. for signs and for wonders
16. seek and inquire of the
17. and to the necromancers who
18. who know because
19. and to the testimony; if they do not
20. and they shall see the light of Assyria, there is no
21. and cuttings, and they shall not send
22. upon them, of all
23. in wrath and in indignation and in
24. from the spring, from the land, not
25. his people; and he shall call his name, all
26. the government, and of peace, a
27. in justice and in righteousness, from
28. and forever, the zeal of the LORD
29. they say, 'rejection' and for
30. and smoke, and he shall say, 'the palace'