Damascus Document

Laws as to oaths and vows; final exhortations

1And as for the exact statement of their periods to put Israel in remembrance in all these things; behold it is exactly determined in the Book of the Divisions of the Times into their Jubilees and Weeks.

2And on the day on which the man imposes it upon himself to return to the law of Moses the 3 angel of Mastema will depart from him if he make good his word. Therefore Abraham was 4 circumcised on the day of his knowing it. As to what he said,‘ That which is gone forth from 5 thy lips thou shalt keep’ to make it good—No binding oath, which a man imposes upon himself with a view to perform a commandment of the law, shall he cancel even at the risk of death.

6Nothing which a man (imposes) upon himself with a view to (frustrate the la)w shall he make 7 good even at the risk of death. (As for) the oath of the woman, whose oath Mos(es sa)id should 8 be disallowed, no man shall disallow an oath which no man knew. It is to be confirmed. And whether it be to disallow or to transgress the covenant, he shall disallow it and not confirm it.

9And so is also the law for her father. As to the law of the of(fer)ings no man shall vow anything