A — The Rules

Part 5

the men of injustice, but he shall impart true knowledge and righteous judgement to those who have chosen the way, to each according to his spirit and according to the rule of the age, guiding them with knowledge. And thus shall he instruct them in the mysteries of marvel and truth among the men of the Community that they may walk in perfection each man with his fellow in all that has been revealed to them. This is the time for the preparation of the way into the wilderness. He shall instruct them in all that is to be done in that time. And he shall separate from every man who has not turned away from all injustice. And these are the rules of conduct for the Master in those times with respect to his loving and hating. Everlasting hatred for the men of the pit in a spirit of secrecy. He shall leave to them property and gain and the earnings of toil like a slave to his lord and the poor man to his master. Each shall be zealous for the precept and his time shall become a day of revenge. He shall perform the will in all his actions and in all his dominion as He has commanded. And all that befalls him, he shall enjoy as a free gift and without the will of GOD he shall not enjoy. He shall delight in all the words of His mouth and shall desire nothing that He has not commanded. And he shall watch always for the judgement of GOD and he shall bless his Maker and in all that befalls he shall declare and with the offering of the lips he shall bless Him at the times which He has decreed. At the beginning of the dominion of light and the completion of its circuit when it retires to its appointed dwelling at the beginning of the watches of darkness. When He opens its storehouse and spreads it out and at the completion of its circuit when it retires before the light. When the heavenly lights shine out from the abode of His holiness together with their withdrawal to the dwelling of glory. At the entry of seasons according to the new moon as well as their completion of their circuit when one succeeds to the other; at their renewal there is a great day for the Holy of Holies and a sign for the opening of the everlasting mercies at the beginning of the seasons for all ages to come. At the beginning of the months for their seasons and on the holy days according to their rules for remembrance in their seasons, I will bless Him with the offering of the lips according to the precept engraved for ever. At the beginning of

the years and at the completion of the circuit of their seasons, when they fulfil their determined precept on the day decreed for one to follow another, the season of early harvest the summer, and the season of sowing the season of grass, the seasons of the years their weeks and at the beginning of their weeks the seasons of jubilee. And during all my existence the engraved precept shall be on my tongue as a fruit of praise and a portion of my lips. I will sing with knowledge and all my music is for the glory of GOD. And I will strike my lyre to the order of His holiness and the pipe of my lips I will tune to His right measure. At the coming of the day and the night I will enter the covenant of GOD and at the departure of evening and morning I will recite His precepts. And in them will I re-establish [my boundaries without return. I will declare His judgement correct concerning my transgression and my rebellion shall be before my eyes as an engraved precept. And I say to GOD, 'My righteousness' and to the Most High, 'Author of my goodness', 'Fountain of Knowledge' and 'Source of Holiness', 'Summit of Glory' and 'Almighty Eternal Majesty'. I will choose] that which He teaches me and I will delight in His judgement of me. Before I move my hands and feet I will bless His name and before I lift my hand to grow fat from the pleasant produce of the world. At the beginning of fear and dread and in the abode of distress and desolation, I will confess marvel and I will meditate on His might and on His mercies I will lean all day long. I know that in His hand is the judgement of all the living and all His deeds are truth. When distress starts I will praise Him and I will exalt Him for His salvation. And I will not pay an evil reward to a man; I will pursue him with goodness. For the judgement of all the living is with GOD, and He will repay man his reward..... and He has caused them to inherit the lot of the Holy Ones... He will atone for all my sins. Through His righteousness He will cleanse me of the uncleanness of man and from the sins of the children of men that I may confess to God His righteousness..

4QSe=4Q259 Three fragmentary columns of a leather scroll contain damaged sections of 1QS VII-IX. The text translated comes from columns and and represents an important doctrinal section of 1QS in an abridged form. Not only are some of the interlinear additions to 1QS absent, suggesting their later editorial nature, but 4QSe jumps from 1QS VIII, to IX, 12, thus omitting among other things the mention of the 'Prophet and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel'. It would seem that the copyist of this manuscript substituted 4Q319 for the text corresponding to 1QS X-XI. For the editio princeps, see P. S. Alexander and G. Vermes, DJD, XXVI, 129-52.

II.. And when he has completed two years, the Congregation shall consider his case and he shall be inscribed in his rank and afterwards he may question concerning the law. And anyone who has been in the Council of the Community until he has completed ten years, and then his spirit turned back so that he has betrayed the Community and has departed from the Congregation to walk in the stubbornness of his heart, he shall return no more to the Council of the Community. And any of the men of the Community who has shared with him his purity or his property, his sentence shall be like his: he shall be expelled. In the Council of the Community there shall be twelve men and three priests, perfect in all that has been revealed from the whole Law to practise truth, righteousness and justice loving-kindness and modesty towards one another. They shall preserve faith in the land with steadfastness and with humility and a broken spirit. And they shall atone for iniquity by the practice of justice and the distress of testing. They shall walk with all men by the standard of truth, by the rule of the time. When these are in Israel, the Council of the Community shall be established to be an everlasting plantation, a House of Holiness for Israel and an Assembly of

Supreme Holiness for Aaron. They shall be witnesses of the truth at the Judgement, and shall be the elect of good will who atone for the Land and pay to the wicked their reward. It shall be the tried wall, that precious corner-stone. They shall neither rock, nor sway from their place. It shall be a most Holy Dwelling for Aaron for a Covenant of justice to offer up sweet fragrance. It shall be a House of Perfection and Truth in Israel that they may establish a Covenant according to the everlasting precepts. When they have been confirmed for two years in the perfection of way in the Foundation of the Community, they shall be set apart as holy within the Council of the men of the Community. And the interpreter shall not conceal from them, out of fear of the spirit of apostasy, any of those things hidden from Israel which have been discovered by him. And when these shall become the Community, they shall separate from the habitation of unjust men and shall go into the wilderness to prepare there the way of the Truth; as it is written, In the wilderness prepare the way of.. make straight in the desert a path for our God. This is the study of the Law which He commanded by the hand of Moses. These are the precepts in which the Master shall walk in his commerce with all the living, according to the rule proper to every season and according to the worth of every man.