Qumran lines for the fun of it...

Just for the fun of it, I thought I'd post some of the stuff I'm translating in my Qumran class. Below the fold is the first four lines/verses from a scroll found in the 4th cave at Qumran. Anything in brackets has been reconstructed (in these four lines that's about everything). Keep in mind that the text is in fragments (that's why it does not make sense). Part of the reason why this particular text is in such poor shape is because it was the outside layer of this scroll (4QInstruction) and thus it suffered more from moisture, insects, etc. than the inner layers (i.e., what comes later):

4Q416 f2i:
1 ‏ [ -- לב]לׄתיׄ
‎2 ‏ [...ואיש עול אל תחשוב עזר וגמ אין שונא ...]ל֯תיׄ
‎3 ‏ [... רשע מעשיו עם פקדתו ודע במה תתהלך עמו ...]°קהׄ ‎
4 ‏ [... אל תמיש מלבכה ואל לכה לבדכה תרחב נפשכ]ה בׄראשכה.

My gloss/translation:
1. To not...
2. [... and you shall not consider (or think) a man of injustice a help, nor (or "and also" + negative) shall there be one hating...]...
3. [... the wickedness of his deeds with his punishment. And know in what way you should walk with him...]
4. [... You shall not depart from your heart, and do not broaden your soul for yourself alone (i.e., don't be greedy)] in your poverty.

It is odd translating fragments of a text. Without context it is difficult to know what is going on. Another thing of interest is the fact that none of the Hebrew (or Aramaic) has any vowel pointing. This makes it intriguing to observe the various readings people will come up with.

Take for example an earlier fragment in this same text (4Q415 f9:1):

7. [-- יחד ממשל זכר את נׄ[קבה
8. [--]רוחה המשל בה כ֯

One could translate it a few different ways depending on the vocalization (i.e., what vowels you add where):

7. together dominion, male with fe[male...]
together from a proverb, male with fe[male...]
together, male dominating fe[male...] (this is Florentino Garcia Martinez's reading)

8. Cause her spirit to have dominion within her...
her spirit. Have dominion over her... (Martinez's reading)
her spirit of the proverb is in her like...
her spirit. The proverb is with/in her like...

I liked my second vocalization of 7 (i.e., the "proverb" one); however, within context it probably does not work given the problems it causes for line 8 (i.e., one would have to go with the 3rd or 4th translations of line 8 to be consistent, and they seem a bit awkward, and translation 3 may actually not work--I'm not sure the first noun in a construct chain is allowed to have a pronominal suffix on it... Though apparently it occurs in Gen. 9:24 (בנו הקטן)).

All of this gives you a sense of how much wiggle room there is in some of this work. Nonetheless, this does not mean all readings are created equal. Some are definitely better than others.