Scroll fragment 13Q29 - SCP Foundation

Scroll fragment 13Q29, discovered at Khirbet Qumran in 1951. Scrolls consisted of vellum, with Hebrew (Assyrian block text) lettering written using a lampblack compound for ink. The fragment appears to have been in poor condition when recovered from the cave, and additional damage to the fragment occurred during recovery by Foundation personnel. Due to the condition of the scroll fragments, reconstruction of the original text is largely speculative.

███████n the first year of the reign of Darius, I was visited b█

███en travelers, who came to Babylon from Egypt, yea ███and th██

██ake unto me of their crossing of the desert of An███████eventy

█nd seven were their number when they did depart fro███gypt, and

██hey were servants of the king of Egypt, come to treat with the

████ng of the Medes. And I said unto them, where are the others█

██f your number? And a great trembling fell upon them, and the██

would not speak and therefore left me alone. whence I said un███

them, if you will not speak, then show me where are thy ████████

brothers, the men of Egypt who serve the king of Egypt. A███████

Potiphabas, who w████s chief among them, sayeth he unto me, ████

███████place at █████████f the kingdom, and sayeth he unto me, █

they are lost, th████east fell upon us in the valley that is ███

beyond the mountain to the south, and we did fear it, and we hid

ourselves whilst it consumed our brothers. And the king on hi███

seat in Babylon did say unto me, go, and see what is the trut███

of this, and take with you the wise men of Babylon, and of █████

Persia, and of Graecia, and of Egypt, and of the Medes, and of █

all the nations and the soothsayers of Chaldea and the judges of

the Hebrews which art of the children of the captivity of Judah.

and let the judges of the Hebrews bring the holy vessel of the██

LORD, and let the men of Babylon, and of Persia, and of ████████

Graecia, and of Egypt, and of the Medes, and of all the nation██

████ bring the magi████al things each of their kind. For I, t███

███████ Babylon, shall not suffer a beast to harm my subjects,██

██████he servants of foreign princes come to treat with me. And█

████the beast be destroyed. And I said unto the king, I fea█████

naught but the LORD, and if the LORD be with me then no beast███

shall harm me. And I went forth bringing the holy vessel of the█

LORD, and the men of Babylon, and of Persia, and of Graecia, an█

of Egypt, and the soothsayers of Chaldea did go forth, each wit█

the magical things of their kind. And we came unt███ the vall███

of Ne████████, which is called the place of lamentations. And███

the place was desolation and it was a place of darkness, for th█

sun wou██████ not ███in that place, and no plant would grow, a██

no man wo███████████o that place, neither any cattle or sheep o█

ass or bird o██the sky or creeping thing. ███████And the men ███

Graecia were afraid of the darkness, but the men of Babylon sai█

unto them, be not afraid, for Marduk of fifty names who hat█████

slain Tiamat shall protect us. And likewise did the men of █████

Canaan say unto the Graecians, lo, Ba’al who is called Hadd█████

who is the LORD of the sky shall smite the beast with a ████████

thunderbolt as he did smite the serpent Lotan. And likewis██████

men of Persia and of Egypt and of the Medes, and of Chaldea an██

of all the n████ ██████y unto them, our gods shall protect us.██

And I feared no█████for I did br████████vessel of the LORD. A███

the soothsayers of Chaldea did say, on the third day the beast██

shal███████, when the stars are right. And we sojourned in that█

place. ███nd on the third day the beast did come, and it was the

Abominati█████, dread and terrible, and behold! it was a dragon,

and it h████ head of a serpent, and great scales as of iron upon

it███████████████ no arrow or spear could pierce, and it had the

legs ██████ bear, and the claws of a leopard, and its tail was a

great scourge, and its countena████e was hatred, and it spake of

its fury and in furious rebukes. And the men of Graecia did ████

say, let us stay hid in secret, and we shall see the beast, an██

know its purposes, and whence it goes. But the men of Babylon ██

spake, saying let us slay the beast, wherefore they assemble████

with their clubs and spears. And the Abomination slew them al███

and devoured their flesh. Next the men of Canaan spake, sayin███

Marduk is a false god, but Ba’al who is called Haddad shall█████

protect us. And their sorcerers did raise their staves, and a███

great cloud of storm did come, and the sorcer██rs of Canaan sent

forth lightning from the cloud and it████████████ did strike the

Abomination. And the Abomination r█████████it was as mighty and█

as terrible as se████████████████████████seven. And the Abom████

██████say, surely this host defiles creation and is a detestab██

thing, yea, thou art all of thou loathsome unto my sight and████

behold, I shall ex███████████ath unto thee. And the Abomin██████

did slay and despoil all of the sorcerers of Canaan and all of██

the men of Canaan, and likewise the men of Persia, and of Egyp██

and of the Medes, the multitude of the nations did fall. And████

the men of Graecia █████did say, let us bring forth our engines█

these bring low th███walls of the cities of the mighty, and even

these shall subd██████the beast. And the engines did cast great█

stones at the Abom██████ination, and mighty bolts of iron and of

brass, but naught did they harm it, and the Abomination did slay

█████e men of Graecia and lay waste to their engines. And I was█

██fraid, and did wonder, wherefore I said unto my servants, yea█

█et us leave the vessel of the LORD in this place, and we shal██

████rotected. And I called forth Aroch, and G███ his son, and I█

██████ them carry forth the vessel of the LORD, and I bade them█

███████pproach the Abomination, and place the vessel upon a high

place, and thence depart from that place. And they did as I█████

commanded, saying yea, the LORD is with us. And the Abomination█

di███████ come, in its wrath and its wickedness, and behold! the

Abo████████ation devoureth the vessel of the LORD, whereupon the

████arkness parted and all the bright lights of heaven did shin█

upon the Abomination, and the people were amazed and they were██

afraid and did tremble. And we did fly from that place, ever████

man for his own life, and the earth was cleaved in two, and the█

Abomination was cast into the abyss, and the abyss is the grav██

of the multitude of all of the nations whom the Abomination di██

slay. And we said unto the LORD, ye have smitten the ███████████

██████ tion, sing Hosannah unto the LORD. But the word of ██████

LORD came unto me, saying, hear the word of the LORD: surely ███

Abomination is not slain, it does lay beneath the earth in this█

place, wherefore approacheth not the valley of the Abominatio███

█et this place be anathema unto you. For the men of Babylo██████

of Persia and of Egypt and of the Medes, and of Chaldea and ████

Graecia and of all of the nations, did they not all of █████████

█erish? But ye, the sons of Abraham did I deliver from th███████

█████nation, yea, even as ye left my vessel for the Abomina█████

████████████████e not forsaken thee. And I fell down upon m█████

████████████████████████████voice, saying ██████████████████████