dssdead-sea-scrolls
A — The Rules
Part 6
The War Rule sets out the complete order of the eschatological battle between the sons of light and the sons of darkness: its forty-year duration, the rotation of tribes, the inscriptions on trumpets and standards, the precise movements of infantry and cavalry, and the ritual purity required of all who march. Priests sound the trumpets; angels fight alongside the host; and the seventh lot brings the mighty hand of God against Belial and his kingdom in an everlasting blow. The battle liturgy anchors every military detail in covenant theology — the victory belongs solely to Jehovah, the God of Israel, not to the arm of flesh.
1
Previously called 4QTohorot B a, this tiny fragment represents a document describing the entry into the Covenant, known from the Community Rule, and alludes to a festival in the third month, i.e. the Feast of Weeks of Pentecost, when according to one of the Cave manuscripts of the Damascus Document the Qumran Covenant renewal took place. For the editio princeps, see P. S. Alexander and G. Vermes, DJD, XXVI, 200—16.
2
And the Guardian will come and the elders with him until.. and they shall enter by genealogy.. And the Guardian shall curse, saying 'Be damned without mercy. Let him be cursed..' And he will remove him] from his inheritance for ever.. when he visits destruction..
