Scrolls from Qumran Cave I

A single column of ancient Hebrew text from the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) on a large parchment fragment. The parchment is weathered and brown with irregular, frayed edges, particularly at the bottom right. The Hebrew script is a formal square hand. The fragment is presented on a bright blue background for contrast in this scholarly edition.

E?phraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, in pride and in greatness of heart, who say:
"The bricks have fallen, but we will build with hewn stone; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars."
Therefore the LORD exalts the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies:
the Arameans from the east and the Philistines from the west; and they devour Israel with every mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Yet the people do not turn to him who strikes them, nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.
So the LORD cuts off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
The elder and the honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.
Those who lead this people lead them astray, and those who are led by them are swallowed up.
Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evildoer,
and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
For wickedness burns like fire; it consumes briers and thorns;
it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no man spares his brother.
They slice off on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each eats the flesh of his own arm:
Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression,
to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
What will you do on the day of punishment, and in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?
Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!
Against a profane nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to trample them down like the mire of the streets.
But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;
for he says: "Are not my commanders all kings?
Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?"
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the fruit of the haughty
heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.
For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I have removed the boundaries of peoples?,
and I have plundered their treasures; like a bull I have brought down those who sit? [illegible — 3 words]?