Isaiah 51 — Dead Sea Scrolls
23 verses • 7 variants • Columns XLI-XLII of 1QIsaiah-a
Scroll Overview
Summary
Isaiah 51 calls Israel to remember their origins ('Look to the rock from which you were hewn') and promises redemption. The chapter has 23 verses in columns XLI-XLII. The chapter contains several moderate variants, particularly in suffix forms.
Notable Variants
Verse 4: the scroll has an important variant reading 'peoples' (plural) versus 'my people' (singular). Verse 6: a minor variant in the verb form. Verse 9: 'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD' — identical in both. Verse 16: a possible variant in the verb 'to plant.'
Scroll Condition
Well preserved throughout.
Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
Masoretic (WLC)
צֶדֶק
righteousness
Dead Sea Scroll
צדק
righteousness
Identical consonantal text. 'You who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD.'
1QIsaᵃ col. XLI, line 27
Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLI, line 28
For the LORD comforts Zion; He comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of song.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLI, line 29
Give heed to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice as a light to the peoples.
Masoretic (WLC)
עַמִּי
my people
Dead Sea Scroll
עמים
peoples
The MT reads ammi ('my people,' singular with possessive suffix). 1QIsaiah-a reads ammim ('peoples,' plural without suffix). This changes 'Give attention to me, my people' to 'Give attention to me, O peoples' — making the address universal rather than directed solely at Israel.
This variant fits the universalizing tendency seen elsewhere in Second Isaiah and may represent an older reading. The LXX also has a plural form here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 1
My righteousness draws near; my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 2
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who dwell on it will die in like manner. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be broken.
Masoretic (WLC)
יִבְלוּ
will wear out
Dead Sea Scroll
יבלו
will wear out
Identical consonantal text. 'The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment' — this striking cosmological image is the same in both.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 3
Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law: do not fear the reproach of mortals, and do not be dismayed at their revilings.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 4
For the moth will eat them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 5
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago! Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?
Masoretic (WLC)
עוּרִי עוּרִי
Awake, awake
Dead Sea Scroll
עורי עורי
Awake, awake
Identical reading. The dramatic doubled imperative 'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD!' — calling on God's power to act as in the days of old — is the same in both traditions.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 6
Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to pass over?
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 7
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 8
I, I am He who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass?
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 9
You have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy. But where is the wrath of the oppressor?
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 10
He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die in the pit, nor shall his bread be lacking.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 11
For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the LORD of hosts is His name.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 12
I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, planting the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, You are my people.
Masoretic (WLC)
לִנְטֹעַ
to plant
Dead Sea Scroll
לנטוע
to plant
1QIsaiah-a uses plene spelling with vav. The verse 'to plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth' is theologically rich — God's creative power is invoked as the basis for hope. Both texts agree on the reading.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 13
Rouse yourself, rouse yourself! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of His wrath — the bowl of the cup of staggering you have drunk; you have drained it.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 14
There is no one to guide her among all the children she has borne; there is no one to take her by the hand among all the children she has raised.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 15
These two things have befallen you — who will grieve for you? — devastation and destruction, famine and sword — who can comfort you?
Masoretic (WLC)
שְׁתַּיִם
two things
Dead Sea Scroll
שתים
two things
Minor orthographic difference.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 16
Your children have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net, full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 17
Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, drunk, but not with wine:
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 18
This is what your Lord says, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of His people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering — the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You shall drink of it no more.
Masoretic (WLC)
חֲמָתִי
my wrath
Dead Sea Scroll
חמתי
my wrath
Identical consonantal text.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 19
And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who said to you, Bow down, that we may walk over you. And you made your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLII, line 20