PSALMS, 11Q5

More copies of the Book of Psalms have been discovered among the scrolls than any other biblical text—39 manuscripts in total, including 36 from the Qumran caves and three from elsewhere in the Judean Desert.

The scroll before you is the most substantial of these Psalms manuscripts. Discovered rolled up in a cave, it consists of several sheets of leather sewn together and contains over 50 psalms dating from 20–68 CE, according to recent radiocarbon analysis.

This manuscript reveals surprising differences from the traditional Hebrew Bible. The psalms appear in a different order than the later Masoretic text, and seven additional psalms are included that aren’t found in the standard biblical collection. Another striking feature is the use of ancient paleo-Hebrew script specifically for God’s sacred four-letter name—a mark of special reverence.

The scroll’s blackened bottom edge shows damage from centuries of cave moisture. For years, this darkened section was illegible until infrared photography revealed the carbon-based ink beneath. The four fragments displayed here represent partial layers of the rolled scroll, showing where damage occurred to this precious text over two millennia ago.

Detail Translation

1 ¹ A song of ascents. I turn my eyes to the mountains; from where will [my help] come?
2 ² My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth. ³ He will not let your
3 foot [give way;] and your guardian [will] not slumber; ⁴ See, the [guardian of]
4 [I]srael neither slumbers nor sleeps at night! ⁵ The LORD is your guardian, your protection at your right hand. 6 By da[y]
5 [the s]un will not strike you, nor the moon by night. ⁷ The LORD will guard you from al[l harm,] He will gu[ard]
6 your life. ⁸ He will guard your going and coming now and for[ever.]

[xxx] = restoration of missing text based on other versions of the same text or scholarly research

LORD = the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God in the Hebrew Bible