Alternative Psalms Manuscripts: 4QPs-b (4Q84) and 4QPs-d (4Q86)

This post picks up the theme introduced previously concerning the Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls that preserve alternative sequences (alternative to the MT sequence) of psalms in the MT. There are nine such scrolls, and I've already introduced the first, 4QPsa. Here are the second and third. 


4QPsb (4Q84)

• Date: mid-I CE
• Preserved contents: Ps 91:5–8, 12–15; 92:4–8, 13–15; 93:5; 94:1–4, 7–9, 10–14, 17–18, 21–22; 96:2; 98:4–5; 99:5–6; 100:1–2; 102:5?, 10–29; 103::1–6, 9–14, 20–21; 112:4–5; 113:1; 115:2–3; 116:17–19; 118:1–3, 5–10, 12, 18–20, 23–26, 29.
• Reconstructed sequence of preserved contents: Ps 91[→]92[→]93[→]94, 96, 98, 99[→]100, 102→103[→]112[→]113, 115, 116[→117→]118
• Alternative sequences: 103→112

To focus on that alternative sequence, here's a picture. 

Frag. 25, cols. ii–iv

In this picture, the column on the right (col. ii of the fragment = col. XXV of the scroll) is the end of Ps 103; you can see all of v. 20 and the beginning of v. 21. The next column (col. iii = col. XXVI) contains part of Ps 112; you can see most of v. 4 and the beginning of v. 5 (in the third line). In the next column you can sort of see a hallelujah, presumably the one that begins Ps 113.

4QPsd (4Q86)

• Date: mid-I BCE
• Preserved contents: Ps 106:48?; 147:1–4, 13–17, 20; 104:1–5, 8–11, 14–15, 22–25, 33–35.
• Reconstructed sequence: 106:48?→147→104
• Alternative sequences: 106:48?→147→104

First alternative sequence: 106:48?→147

Frag. 1

This fragment shows a hallelujah at the top, preceded by something. Here's the comment in DJD 16, p. 66: "Halleluyah is preceded by a final letter that extends below the line which cannot be the reš of ודר in Ps 146:10. The only Psalm with such an ending is 106." Of course, this reasoning assumes that we are looking at a psalm that we know from the traditional Psalter. At any rate, what comes next, in the second visible line, is the opening of Ps 147: [הללו]יה כי טוב זמרה אלהינו נא[וה זמרה].

Second alternative sequence: 147→104

Frag. 6

The top of this fragment shows the very end of Ps 147. The second visible line has the hallelujah at the end of the psalm, followed by a vacat on the same line. The next line (third visible line) contains the opening of Ps 104.