Psalms 4Q-84 - Tamar

This scroll of the Book of Psalms was found in Cave no. 4, and is dated to the First Century BCE.

The Book of Psalms was one of the most popular books amongst scribes who wrote and copied the Scrolls. A large number of the various Psalms were found in the caves surrounding Qumran.

This scroll fragment includes psalms in a different order than in the Massorah - the traditional biblical version in use until today.

Psalm 92, (in the center of the plate), expresses the faith of the believer in God's divine guidance. The psalm addresses the subject of divine justice and its central theme is that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. The psalmist uses a variety of images to illustrate this idea, amongst them is the date palm as a metaphor for righteousness, and weeds, representative of the wicked. The rightous will be rewarded and will flourish even in old age like the date palm while the success of the wicked is short-lived and unstable as a weed that quickly flowers and withers.

The scroll survived only partially, but large sections could be reconstructed by comparing its text to that of Psalm no. 92 in the traditional book of Psalms. Unfortunately, the passage about the evil-doers survived partially (first word in the fourth column from the right); whereas the passage comparing the righteous to the date palm did not survive.