4QJeremiahᵃ (4Q70): The Longer Hebrew Edition
An early Cave 4 Jeremiah scroll preserves portions of chapters 7–22 and broadly represents the longer Hebrew textual tradition known from the Masoretic Text.
- Artifact date
- Hellenistic period, approximately 225–175 BC
- Findspot
- Qumran Cave 4, near the Dead Sea
- Current location
- Israel Antiquities Authority collections
What archaeologists can actually examine
Fragments of 4Q70 preserve portions of Jeremiah 7–22. The scroll includes corrections and an inserted passage, material evidence that scribes actively copied and revised a form broadly aligned with the longer Hebrew edition. The evidentiary claim concerns 4QJeremiahᵃ (4Q70): The Longer Hebrew Edition as a physical witness dated Hellenistic period, approximately 225–175 BC, not a general claim about every manuscript in the same collection. For this dossier, the catalog identity, surviving passage range, physical description, present collection, and publication history are kept separate so that a reader can distinguish observation from reconstruction. The conclusion is deliberately limited to what this particular witness contributes. Comparison with other manuscripts remains necessary, because neither age nor completeness makes a single copy automatically decisive.
Longer edition represented
The scroll broadly aligns with the textual form later preserved in the Masoretic tradition.
Scribal revision visible
Corrections and a substantial insertion expose stages of copying on the artifact itself.
Jeremiah 7–22
The fragments cover temple, covenant, lament, and royal-oracle material.
A bounded evidentiary claim
The dossier distinguishes the cataloged object and visible text from restored gaps, broader historical claims, and theological interpretation.
Follow the evidence from discovery to debate
Move through the find in a deliberate order: establish its provenance, examine the surviving object, place it in time, and then weigh the scholarly interpretation.
How the find came to light
4QJeremiahᵃ (4Q70): The Longer Hebrew Edition is cataloged as a discrete manuscript witness rather than as a generic literary tradition. Its present identity is controlled by the shelf mark or excavation siglum in the cited institutional catalog, while the publication history in the accompanying scholarly source provides the basis for the description used here. The discovery and modern catalog history matter because provenance and stable identifiers prevent detached fragments, neighboring shelf marks, or similarly named witnesses from being silently combined. For this dossier, the catalog identity, surviving passage range, physical description, present collection, and publication history are kept separate so that a reader can distinguish observation from reconstruction. The conclusion is deliberately limited to what this particular witness contributes. Comparison with other manuscripts remains necessary, because neither age nor completeness makes a single copy automatically decisive.
What you are looking at
Fragments of 4Q70 preserve portions of Jeremiah 7–22. The scroll includes corrections and an inserted passage, material evidence that scribes actively copied and revised a form broadly aligned with the longer Hebrew edition. The surviving material is presented as evidence for the text actually preserved, not as a reconstruction of missing pages or an autograph. Readers should notice the relation between the preserved material, the lines or fragments actually visible, and the biblical range assigned by the critical catalog. For this dossier, the catalog identity, surviving passage range, physical description, present collection, and publication history are kept separate so that a reader can distinguish observation from reconstruction. The conclusion is deliberately limited to what this particular witness contributes. Comparison with other manuscripts remains necessary, because neither age nor completeness makes a single copy automatically decisive.
Where it belongs in history
The date Hellenistic period, approximately 225–175 BC is the cataloged scholarly assessment, normally based on script, material features, and comparison with dated hands or archaeological context. The range should therefore be read as an expert estimate rather than a date supplied by the ancient copyist. Paleographic and material dating situates the copy within a transmission history while leaving an honest chronological range rather than a falsely exact year. For this dossier, the catalog identity, surviving passage range, physical description, present collection, and publication history are kept separate so that a reader can distinguish observation from reconstruction. The conclusion is deliberately limited to what this particular witness contributes. Comparison with other manuscripts remains necessary, because neither age nor completeness makes a single copy automatically decisive.
Consensus, questions, and debate
Scholarly value lies in the manuscript's independent physical witness and its controlled catalog identity. Readings and reconstructions are evaluated against other witnesses; differences may illuminate transmission, but one fragment does not by itself determine the earliest recoverable form of every passage. Critical editions compare this witness with other Hebrew or Greek manuscripts, ancient translations, corrections, and scribal habits instead of treating one reading in isolation. For this dossier, the catalog identity, surviving passage range, physical description, present collection, and publication history are kept separate so that a reader can distinguish observation from reconstruction. The conclusion is deliberately limited to what this particular witness contributes. Comparison with other manuscripts remains necessary, because neither age nor completeness makes a single copy automatically decisive.
The biblical record beside the artifact
4Q70 directly witnesses ancient transmission of Jeremiah’s temple sermon, covenant indictment, laments, and royal oracles in the longer edition of the book. The connection is textual: the object preserves wording from the cited passages and documents that those passages were copied, arranged, and read in this historical setting. For this dossier, the catalog identity, surviving passage range, physical description, present collection, and publication history are kept separate so that a reader can distinguish observation from reconstruction. The conclusion is deliberately limited to what this particular witness contributes. Comparison with other manuscripts remains necessary, because neither age nor completeness makes a single copy automatically decisive.
Jeremiah 7:1–34
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all [ye of] Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, [are] these.
5For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
6[If] ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
7Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
8¶ Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
10And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
11Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen [it], saith the LORD.
12But go ye now unto my place which [was] in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
13And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
14Therefore will I do unto [this] house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, [even] the whole seed of Ephraim.
16Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
17¶ Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead [their] dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: [do they] not [provoke] themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
21¶ Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
23But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
24But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels [and] in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
25Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending [them:]
26Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
28But thou shalt say unto them, This [is] a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
29¶ Cut off thine hair, [O Jerusalem], and cast [it] away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
31And they have built the high places of Tophet, which [is] in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded [them] not, neither came it into my heart.
32¶ Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
33And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray [them] away.
34Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
A responsible historical conclusion
This record gives readers a specific, inspectable point of contact between the biblical passage and an ancient manuscript. It is most useful for understanding preservation, copying, and reception while keeping historical and theological conclusions proportionate to the evidence. Its value is cumulative and comparative: a controlled manuscript identity adds one more datable checkpoint to the history of the biblical text and helps readers see how conclusions are tested. For this dossier, the catalog identity, surviving passage range, physical description, present collection, and publication history are kept separate so that a reader can distinguish observation from reconstruction. The conclusion is deliberately limited to what this particular witness contributes. Comparison with other manuscripts remains necessary, because neither age nor completeness makes a single copy automatically decisive.
Authoritative sources
Institutional catalogs, excavation reports, and academic publications let you examine the evidence beyond this summary.
4Q Jeremiah A
Israel Antiquities AuthorityOfficial catalog and imagery for 4Q70.
Qumran Cave 4.X: The Prophets
Oxford University PressCritical edition of 4Q70 and the other Cave 4 prophetic manuscripts.
The Long Insertion in 4QJeremiah A
De Gruyter BrillFocused academic analysis of the manuscript’s substantial scribal insertion and textual history.