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The Thanksgiving Hymns — Column 16

The Qumran Community · a new plain-English translation from the original language

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[...] [their ear] [was stopped] to [your teachings] [until] [...] and [a perverse] [spirit]

[in] [lack of] [knowledge] you struck [from] [my depths] and [glory of] [heart] [...] and [there is] [no] [more] [for me]

[to] [a stumbling block of] iniquity [...] for you reveal your salvation, and your righteousness you establish forever [...] for not to [man] [belongs] his way [...]

[all] [these] [for] [your glory] you have done [...]

[I thank you], [O Lord], for you have set me at a spring of flowing water in dry ground, and a fountain of water in a parched land, and one who waters

a garden and a pool [...] the field, a planting of cypress and elm together with box-tree, for your glory, trees of

life, by a spring of mystery hidden in the midst of all trees by water [...] and they came to put forth a shoot for an eternal planting [...]

to take root before they bloom, and their roots to [the stream] they send out [...] and its trunk opens to living waters

and it becomes an eternal spring [...] and on its shoot's leaves all [beasts] of the forest graze [...] and its trunk is a trampling-place for all who pass by

the way, and its branch for every winged bird [...] and all [trees] by water tower over it, for in their planting they flourish

but toward the stream they do not send root [...] and [the shoot] of [holiness] that sprouts for a true planting is hidden, unnoticed,

unaccounted [...] and its mystery is sealed, unknown [...] and you, [O God], have hedged about its fruit with the mystery of mighty men of strength

and spirits of holiness and a flame of fire turning every way, so that no [stranger] may enter the spring of life, or with the trees of eternity

drink the holy waters, so it does not produce its fruit with the planting of the skies [...] for he saw without recognizing,

and considered without believing, toward the spring of life, and gave [the yield of] eternal blossom [...] and I became like [one scorned] by rivers'

torrents, for their mud was cast upon me [...]

but you, my God, have put in my mouth [words] like the early rain for all [...] and a fountain of living water that does not fail [...] to open

the heavens; they do not depart, and become a flowing torrent [over] [all] [trees] by water, and into seas without limit [...]

suddenly they gush forth, hidden in secret [...] and become waters of [contention] [for] [every] [tree],

moist and dry, and a deep sea for every living thing, and [trees] [...] like lead in [mighty] waters [...]

in sparks of fire they dry up [...] and a planting of fruit [...] [a spring of] eternity for the delight of glory and [everlasting] [splendor] [...]

and by my hand you opened their spring, together with channels of [...] blood, to turn upon a right line, and a planting

their trees by the sun's plumb-line, to [...] and for splendor of glory [...] when I waved my hand to hoe

its channels; its roots strike the flint rock, and [...] and in the earth their trunk [...] and in a time of heat it withholds

its strength [...] and if I withdraw my hand it becomes like a juniper [in] [the desert], and its trunk like nettles in a salt-marsh [...] and its channels

bring up thorn and thistle, into briar and thornbush, and [...] its bank turns like trees of rot [...] before

the heat its leaves wither, and it does not open with the rain [...] a sojourner with sicknesses and [a failing] of heart

with afflictions [...] and I became like a man forsaken in grief [...] there is no strength for me [...] for [my affliction] blossomed

into bitterness, and an incurable pain, with no power to restrain it [...] and [there was] [turmoil] upon me like those who go down to Sheol [...] and with

the dead my spirit searches, for [my life] has reached the pit [...] my soul faints, day and night,

without rest [...] and it blazes like a burning fire shut up in my bones [...] until its flame consumes its days

to the end of strength, for its seasons, and to the wasting of flesh until the appointed times [...] and breakers fly upon me

and my soul bows down upon me to failing [...] for my strength has ceased from my body, and my heart pours out like water [...] and melts

like wax, my flesh, and the strength of my loins has become terror [...] and my arm is broken from its socket, and [there is no strength] to raise a hand [...]

and my foot is caught in a fetter, and my knees go like water [...] and there is no stepping forth, nor any pace to the sound of my feet [...]

and the vigor of my arms is bound in fetters of stumbling [...] and the tongue you strengthened in my mouth is not gathered in [...] and there is none to raise

a voice, or to give ear to teachings, to revive the failing spirit and to sustain with a word the weary [...] the utterance of my lips is struck dumb

from horror [...] by a line of judgment is my heart's tablet, and [...] [or] in bitterness [...] a heart of rams, dominion

in [my inclinations] [...] to the seas, and [I] [...] to [...] [my soul] is swallowed up

[their depths] [...] are struck dumb as nothing

[...] man, to [nothing] [...]

An original translation made in 2026 by Scriptorium Press, working directly from the original language text (never from another English translation), in one consistent modern voice. Free to read, download, and listen — no accounts, no ads, nothing for sale.

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