Deuteronomy 4 — Dead Sea Scrolls
4 attestation entries • 0 variants • 4QDeut family
Manuscript Overview
Summary
Deuteronomy 4 is Moses' call to hear and obey, including the warning against idolatry and the great rhetorical question 'has any people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire and lived?' (v. 33). Multiple 4QDeut manuscripts preserve fragments. 1QDeutᵃ attests vv. 47–49 (Transjordan summary). 4QDeutᵐ preserves vv. 30–34, the climactic passage on God's uniqueness.
Notable Variants
No significant content variants. The DSS witnesses agree with the MT. The Shema-prefatory rhetorical question (v. 33) reads identically. Some plene spelling in the divine epithets ('God of gods,' 'mighty God').
Manuscripts
4QDeutᶜ (4Q30), 4QDeutᵐ (4Q40), 4QDeutᵒ (4Q42), 1QDeutᵃ (1Q4)
Scroll Condition
Fragmentary but clear in the preserved passages.
He declared His covenant to you, which He commanded you to carry out — the Ten Words — and He wrote them on two stone tablets.
The reference to the 'Ten Words' (עשרת הדברים) inscribed on tablets is preserved; tracks MT.
4QDeutᶜ frag.
When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice.
The promise of restoration in the latter days is preserved; tracks MT.
4QDeutᵐ frag. 1
Has any people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you have heard, and survived?
The rhetorical climax ('Has any people heard the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of fire and lived?') is preserved verbatim.
4QDeutᵐ frag. 1
Has any god ever attempted to go and take one nation for himself out of another nation — by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a powerful hand, by an outstretched arm, and by acts of great terror — the way the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
The Exodus catechism ('signs, wonders, war, mighty hand, outstretched arm, great terrors') tracks MT.
4QDeutᵐ frag. 1