תהלים קנ״ה | Psalms 155, according to the Nusaḥ of the Judean Desert Scrolls, Edited, Vocalized, Cantillated, and Translated into English by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Psalm 155 is an incomplete acrostic (the Dead Sea Scrolls text records it going from ב to נ, and the Syriac can be reconstructed to include up to פ) with similarities to petitionary psalms like Psalm 3, 22, and 143. It is unclear why it was not included in the Masoretic canon, but one can hazard a guess that it was just not familiar to the compilers.

Categories:

Second Temple Period

Tags:

acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Antiquity, apocryphal psalms, Judaean Desert Scrolls, Psalms 151

Contributor(s):

Unknown and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

💬 ילקוט מזמורים לבן סירא פרק נ״א | An Appendix of Psalms of Ben Sira chapter 51, vocalized, cantillated, and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

The end of the scroll of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) reconstructed from Cairo Geniza fragments not contained within the Septuagint.

Categories:

Second Temple Period

Tags:

2nd century B.C.E., 36th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Cairo Geniza, Classical Antiquity, Dead Sea Scrolls, deuterocanonical works, Ecclesiasticus, Jews of Alexandria, reconstructed text

Contributor(s):

Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

[בחודש אייר בראשון] | [On the 1st of Iyyar] — the first psalm of the “Additional Psalms” from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798

This is the first of four apocryphal psalms from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798, vocalized and cantillated per Masoretic norms, and translated anew. The origin of these psalms (found in a few pages of an incomplete manuscript) is unclear, with earlier scholars suggesting a medieval pious forgery and more recent scholars suggesting an origin in or contemporaneous with the Qumran community. (In any case, no sign of them has been found in the Qumran scrolls, although some aspects of the Hebrew may suggest a relationship there.) The first psalm found in this partial manuscript is an acrostic psalm. It is incomplete at the beginning, missing the letters alef and bet. It also shows evidence of the Galilean dialect in the confusion between hei and ḥet, a guttural merger also found in Qumran texts and in Samaritan Hebrew. It largely focuses on the covenant with David and his rule.

Categories:

Second Temple Period, Rosh Ḥodesh Iyyar (אִיָּר)

Tags:

acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, apocryphal psalms, Cairo Geniza

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Unknown

מזמור לציון | Apostrophe to Zion, according to the Nusaḥ of the Judean Desert Scrolls

The Apostrophe to Zion is an alphabetical acrostic poem, directed at Zion in the second person. It has been found in multiple locations in Qumran, including the Great Psalms Scroll 11QPsa as well as another fragmentary scroll in 4Q88. It was considered a regular part of their psalmodic canon.

Categories:

Second Temple Period

Tags:

acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Classical Antiquity, Dead Sea Scrolls, ציון Tsiyon

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)