4Q560 (4QExorcism ar)
This is a partially preserved text that consists of two fragments?8 The manuscript is usually described as containing an exorcistic or an apotropaic healing text that seeks to counteract demonic illness?9 Fragment 1 consists of two columns while fragment 2 contains two lines.
The text begins with a title followed by a list of demons against whom the incantation was written (4Q560 1 i:3). It is followed by an exorcistic formula, a summons to the demons not to harm the patient: [’nh mwmh Ik kl] ‘ll bbsr “[I adjure all you who en]ter into the body” (4Q560 1 i:3). Line 4 contains a reference to Ex 34:7, a reference to yhwh as the source of magical power, and then continues with a new list of demons, those summoned not to disturb the patient. This is followed by an exorcism that ends with words that exile the spirits to the nether world: w’nh rwh mwmh [Ik] “And I, O spirit, adjure [you] (4Q560 1 ii:5).
The malevolent agents are listed as myldth mrdwt yldyn pqr b’ys s[yd] “from the midwife, the punishment of childbearers, an evil madness, a de[mon]” (4Q560 1 1:2). Thus the text refers to something related to or coming from the midwife (yldth), which is a punishment or chastisement (mrdwt) for the parturient (yldn).[193] This chastisement is seemingly identical with an illness called pqr b’ys “an evil madness” and syd “a demon”. The next line mentions male and female agents of the illness that enter the body: [’nh mwm’ lk kl] ‘ll bbsr’ lhlhy’dqr’whlhlyt nqbt’ “[I adjure all you who en]ter into the body, the male Wasting-demon and the female Wasting-demon” (4Q560 1 i:3). After this, there is a tripartite series of terms that appears to refer to various symptoms of fever: ’s’ “fire”, 'ry’ “chill”, and ’st lbb “pain in the heart” (4Q560 1 i:4).[194] [195] [196] Similar series occur in later Jewish amulet texts.22 The fever is most probably caused by a rwh “spirit” (4Q560 1 ii.5), which may be identical with the previously mentioned pqd b’ys “evil visitor” that 'll bbsr’ “enters the flesh” (4Q560 1 i.2-3).23 Using a series of names to refer to the agent of an illness is a regular custom in magical medical texts. According to one reconstruction and interpretation of the next line, it appears that the text refers to when the demon is active: [w’syr lbhlh blyly’ bhlmyn ’w bymm]h bsn’ prk dkrw pkyt nqbt’ mht’ “[You are forbidden to disturb by night in dreams or by da]y during sleep, O male Shrine-spirit and female Shrine-spirit, O you demons who breach” (4Q560 1 1:5). The interpretation of bsn’ as “during sleep”, however, is far from plausible. Sleeping during the day is not documented in apotropaic texts. It is more likely that masculine prk and feminine prkt, when followed by bsn’, refers somehow to teeth. The Aramaic root prk means “crumble” or “crush”. The translation “male Shrinespirit and female Shrine-spirit” probably supposes a meaning of the word as “spirit of the dead”.25 An earlier translation rendered it as that which “comes during sleeping in/through the tooth of the male prk and female prkyt, strikes down”.26 This may refer to toothache or tooth decay, or a disease that was thought to enter through the teeth. 4Q560, therefore, visualises a spirit that brings fever, and that can enter under various forms, male or female, and perhaps through the teeth. Line 6 also mentions the 'yri byst[ ’] “evil eye”, which, together with the midwives mentioned in line 2, play an important role in the origin of fever.27 The presence of the midwife, the punishment of the mother, and a fever, in the same passage, suggests that the text relates to the illness of an infant, which may be taken to be a punishment for the parturient. Wet nurses are mentioned in several Mesopotamian incantation texts—and never positively. It could seem unusual to have a text dealing with midwives and infant fever in the library of a celibate community—however, it is not so implausible. The Qumran halakhic fragments of the Damascus Document treat themes relating to marriage and female impurity,32 and may have served as a rule for those members of the Essene community that lived in families. This may illuminate the purpose of 4Q560. It can be supposed that it was an apotropaic text rather than the description of a real exorcism. Apotropaic incantations, like amulets, were written in order to avert demonic attacks. The authors of these documents used an active voice, describing a demonic attack that ends with the exorcism of the demon. Considering this phenomenon it is to be supposed that 4Q560 was a master text for an incantation against infant fever.