View source for 4Q108

'''4Q108''' (or '''4QCant<sup>c</sup>''') is a fragment containing a portion of the [[Song of Solomon|Song of Songs]] (3:7–8) in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].<ref>{{Cite book | editor-last = Ulrich | editor-first = Eugene | editor-link = Eugene Ulrich | title = The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants | year = 2010 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/TheBiblicalQumranScrolls/page/n758 742] | publisher = Brill | url = https://archive.org/details/TheBiblicalQumranScrolls |access-date= May 15, 2017 | isbn= 9789004181830}}</ref><ref name=generalinfo>[https://thewaytoyahuweh.com/dead-sea-scrolls/general-info/#song_of_songs Dead sea scrolls - Song of Songs].</ref><ref name=fitzmyer>{{Cite book|last = Fitzmyer|first = Joseph A. |title = A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature| authorlink = Joseph Fitzmyer | publisher = William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TILXeWJ2eNAC | year = 2008 | pages = 42 |isbn = 9780802862419 | location = Grand Rapids, MI | access-date= February 15, 2019}}</ref> Fragments from three such scrolls were found in Cave 4 at [[Qumran]]. These, and [[6Q6]] from Cave 6, estimated from 2nd century BCE, comprise the total witness to the Song from the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], known so far.
==Identification==
It is evident that 4Q108 is not from the other two manuscripts of the Song found in the cave. The last two words of Song 3:7, ''g'bore Israel'' ("warriors of Israel") are already accounted for in [[4Q106]]; and the letters of [[4Q107]] are formed by an observably different hand to 4Q108. The manner of composition (''[[Wiktionary:ductus|ductus]]'') of the letters ''aleph'' and ''shin'' differs between the manuscripts. Additionally, the [[Lacuna (manuscripts)|lacuna]] in the second column of 4Q107 does not provide enough space to accommodate 4Q108.

==Contents==
4Q108 is a "tiny fragment"<ref>[[Eugene Ulrich|Eugene Charles Ulrich]] and others (eds), ''[[Discoveries in the Judaean Desert]] Volume XVI: [http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198269434 Psalms to Chronicles: Qumran Cave 4.XI] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929121006/http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198269434 |date=2007-09-29 }}'', (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001): 219. {{ISBN|978-0-19-826943-4}}</ref>
containing only ten letters from two lines — five letters each from verses seven and eight of chapter three. The five letters from verse seven are: {{Script/Hebrew|למה}} (''lmh''), the last three letters of the name ''Solomon''; and {{Script/Hebrew|שש}} (''šš'') (''shesh''), the ''six'' in the word ''sixty''. The five letters from verse eight are a single word {{Script/Hebrew|אחוזי}} (''’ăḥūzî''), the passive participle of the verb meaning ''grasp''. So 4Q108 reads:
*[<sup>7</sup>Behold the seat of So]'''lomon six'''[ty warriors surrounding it, from the warriors of]
*[Israel, <sup>8</sup>all of them] '''equipped''' [with sword ...]

==Features==
*The [[Masoretic Text]] spells the verb of verse eight with only four letters ({{Script/Hebrew|אחזי}}); 4Q108, however, contains a consonant (''vav'') representing one of the distinctive vowels ({{IPA|he|u|}}) of the passive participle.
*The passive construction used here — ''aḥuzi ḥereb'' (grasped of sword) — is not unique to either the Song (see [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]] 43:6) or to Hebrew.<ref>Y Blau, ''Leshonenu'' '''18''' (1950-1952): 67-81. {{in lang|he}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts]]
*[[Biblical manuscript]]
*[[Tanakh at Qumran]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[[Emanuel Tov]]. [https://doi.org/10.1163%2F15685170151094944 'A Categorized List of All the "Biblical Texts" Found in the Judean Desert.'] ''Dead Sea Discoveries'' '''8''' (2001): 67-84.
*[https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/manuscript/4Q108-1 4Q108 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library]

{{Song of Songs}}
{{Dead Sea Scrolls}}
[[Category:Dead Sea Scrolls]]
[[Category:1st-century BC biblical manuscripts]]