Scrolls from Qumran Cave I

A high-significance photograph of a column from the Dead Sea Scrolls (specifically 1QIsa^a, Column XII). The manuscript is written in an ancient Hebrew Herodian script on light brown parchment. The edges of the fragment are irregular and torn, particularly at the top and bottom. The text is organized in a single central column. Modern line numbers and a scholarly header are visible in the margins of the photographic plate.

For the Lord will have compassion? on Jacob and will again choose Israel and settle them in their own land, and the stranger shall join them and shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the peoples shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord as menservants and maidservants; they shall take captive those who were their captors and rule over their oppressors. And it shall be on the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow and from your trouble and from the hard service in which you were made to serve, that you shall take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say: How the oppressor has ceased, the golden city has ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, that smote the peoples in wrath with an unceasing stroke, that ruled the nations in anger with persecution without restraint. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing. The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you were laid low, no woodcutter has come up against us.” Sheol from beneath is stirred up to meet you at your coming; it rouses the shades for you, all the leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All of them shall answer and say to you, “Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?” Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the sound of your harps; maggots are the bed beneath you, and worms are your covering. How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! And you said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the Pit. Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities, who did not open the house to his prisoners?” All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, each in his own house; but you are cast out from your grave like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the Pit, like a dead body trodden underfoot. You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land; you have slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named! Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth and fill the face of the world with cities. And I will rise up against them, declares the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and offspring and progeny, declares the Lord. And I will make it a possession for the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely as I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, to break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains I will trample him; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden shall depart from his shoulder.” This is the purpose that is purposed concerning all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden came: Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that smote you is broken, for from the root of the snake a viper will come forth, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant He shall slay. Wail, O gate; cry, O city; you are melted away, O Philistia, all of you; for from the north smoke comes, and there is no straggler in his ranks. And what will one answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of His people shall find refuge.

The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste and destroyed; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste and destroyed.?