Of the Remnant (v, 17-vi, 11)

When, in antiquity, Israel was first delivered, Moses and Aaron still continued in their charge, through the help of the Angel of Lights *, even though Belial in his cunning had set up Jannes and his brother in opposition to them.21

Similarly, at the time when the land was destroyed, men arose who removed the ancient landmarks and led Israel

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* Heb. Urim. See Manual of Discipline, iii.20.

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astray; and it was, indeed, because they uttered sedition against the commandments of God which He had given through Moses and through His holy anointed priest Aaron, and because they gave forth false prophecies in order to subvert Israel from God, that the land was laid utterly waste. Nevertheless, God still remembered the Covenant which He had made with their forbears and raised from the priesthood men of discernment and from the laity men of wisdom, and He made them hearken to Him. And these men 'dug the well'-that well whereof it is written, 'Princes digged it, nobles of the people delved it, with the aid of a mehoqeq' [Num. 21.18]. The 'well' in question is the Law. They that 'digged' are those of Israel who repented and departed from the land of Judah to sojourn in the land of Damascus'. * God called them all 'princes' because they went in search of Him, and their glory was never gainsaid (?) by any man's mouth.22 The term mehoqeq [which can mean 'lawgiver' as well as 'stave') refers to the man who expounds the Law. Isaiah has employed an analogous piece of imagery when in allusion to the Law he has spoken of God's 'producing a tool for His work' [cf. ISL 54.16). As for the 'nobles of the people', these are the men that come, throughout the Era of Wickedness, to delve the well, using as their staves [Heb. mehoqeq) the statutes [Heb. huq4m) which the Law-giver prescribed [Heb. haqaq ha-mehoqeq) for them to walk in. Without such 'implements', they would, indeed, never achieve their goal until such time as the true Expositor arises at the end of days.

Of the obligation of the Covenant (vi, 1 1-vii, 6a)

All that enter the covenant with no intention of going into the sanctuary to keep the flame alive on the altar do so in vain. They have as good as shut the door. Of them God has said: 'Who is there among you that would shut

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* Scarcely to be taken literally. See above, pp.5, 27.

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the door, and who of you would not keep alive the flame upon Mine altar?' In vain [Mal. 1.10] [are all their deeds] if, in an era of wickedness, they do not take heed to act in accordance with the explicit injunctions of tile Law;

to keep away from men of rn-repute; to hold themselves aloof from rn-gotten gain;

not to defile themselves by laying hands on that which has been vowed or devoted to God or on the property of the sanctuary;

not to rob the poor of God's people;

not to make widows their prey or murder the fatherless; to distinguish between unclean and clean and to recognize holy from profane;

to keep the sabbath in its every detail, and the festivals and fasts in accordance with the practice laid down originally by the men who entered the new covenant in 'the land of Damascus';23

to pay their required dues in conformity with the detailed rules thereof;

to love each man his neighbor like himself; to grasp the hand of the poor, the needy and the stranger; to seek each man the welfare of his fellow; to cheat not his own kin;

to abstain from whoredom, as is meet;

to bring no charge against his neighbor except by due process, and not to nurse grudges from day to day; to keep away from all unclean things, in accordance with what has been prescribed in each case and with the distinctions which God Himself has drawn for them; not to sully any man the holy spirit within him. 24

Howbeit, for all that perform these rules in holiness unimpaired, according to all the instruction that has been given them-for them will God's Covenant be made good, that they shall be preserved for a thousand generations, even as it is written: 'He keepeth Covenant and loyalty with them that love Him and keep His commandments, even unto a thousand generations' [Deut. 7.9].

Of family life (vii, 6a-9)

if members of the community happen to be living in encampments,25 in accordance with a usage which obtains in this country, and if they marry and beget children,26 they are [in such matters] to follow the precepts of the Law [Torah] and the disciplinary regulations therein prescribed for the relationship of husband to wife and of father to child.*

Of the future requital of the disobedient (vil, 9-vili, 21)

All that reject these things shall be doomed to extinction when God visits the world to requite the wicked-that is, when that ensues which is described by the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz in the words: 'He will bring upon thee and upon thy kindred and upon thy father's house days the like of which have not come since the time that Ephraim departed from Judah' [Isa. 7.17]. In other words, the same situation will then obtain as obtained at the time of the great schism between the two houses of Israel, when Ephraim departed from Judah. At that time all who turned back were delivered to the sword, whereas all who stood fast were vouchsafed escape to 'the land of the north'.27 .

It is to this that allusion is also made in the statement: 'I will exile Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun your image, the star of your God. . . beyond Damascus' [cf. Amos 5.26).

The expression 'Sikkuth your king' refers to the Books of the Law, [for the word 'Sikkuth' is to be explained from the like-sounding sukkah, 'tabernacle')** as in the passage of Scripture which says: 'I will raise up the fallen sukkah [tabernacle] of David' [Amos 9.11].

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* Heb. even as God has said: 'Between a man and his wife and between a father and his son'-a loose quotation from Num. 30.17.

** These words have here been inserted in order to bring out the word-play in the Hebrew original.

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The expression 'king' denotes the congregation;28 and the expression 'Kiyyun your image' refers to the books of the prophets29 whose words the House of Israel has de-spised.80

As for the 'star', that refers to every such interpreter of the Law as indeed repairs to 'Damascus',31 even as it is written: 'There shall step forth a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel' [Num. 24.17].82 The 'sceptre', it may be added, is the leader of the community, for in the exercise of his office he shall 'batter all the sons of pride',88 as the Scripture says.

In the former visitation, these faithful men escaped, while those that turned back were delivered to the sword. Such will be the fate also of those who in the latter days will have entered God's Covenant but not held fast to these things. Them will God punish unto extinction by the hand of Belial.

The day on which God will carry out the punishment will be that to which the prophet alluded when he said: 'The princes of Judah have become like them that remove landmarks; I will pour out My wrath upon them like water' [Hos. 5.10]. They shall hope for healing, but the blem<ish> shall cl<i>ng to them. They are all of them apostates in that they have not turned from the way of the treacherous but have sullied themselves with wantonness and with wicked lucre and with the nursing of grudges against their fellows and with hatred of their neighbors. They have cheated their own kin and have had contact with lewdness and have been overbearing by virtue of wealth and possession and have done every man of them what was right in his own eyes, and have preferred the stubbornness of their own hearts, and have not kept aloof from the rabble, but have behaved lawlessly and highhandedly, walking in the way of the wicked.

Concerning them has God said: 'Their wine shall prove the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps' [Deut 32.33]. The wine' in question is their conduct; the 'serpents' are the kings of the nations; and the 'venom [Heb. ro'sh] of asps' is the chief [Heb. ro'sh] of the Grecian kings who will come to wreak vengeance upon them.

Those that have been 'builders of the rickety wall' and 'daubers of veneer upon it'34 have never considered all this, because the man who walks in wind, who raises whirl-winds, who spouts lies-the kind of man against all of whose ilk God's wrath has always been kindled-has kept spouting at them.

Howbeit, what Moses said of old, 'Not for thy righteousness nor for the uprightness of thy heart art thou going in to possess these nations but because of His love wherewith He loved thy forefathers and because He would keep the oath' [cf. Deut. 9.5],85 applies equally to those in Israel who in those latter days show repentance and eschew the way of the rabble. The same love which God showed to the men of old who pledged themselves to follow Him will He show also to their successors. The ancestral Covenant shall stand good for them.

But inasmuch as He hates and abominates all that 'build a rickety wall', His anger has been kindled against them; and all who reject His commandments and forsake them and go on walking in the stubbornness of their own hearts will be visited with such judgment as has been described. It is to this that Jeremiah was referring when he spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah,36 and Elisha when he spoke to his servant Gehazi.87

All those that entered into the new covenant in 'the land of Damascus' but subsequently relapsed and played false and turned away from the well of living waters shall not be reckoned as of the communion of the people nor inscribed in the roster of it throughout the period from the time the teacher of the community is gathered to his rest until that in which the lay and the priestly messiah [anointed] assume their office.88

The same applies also to all that entered the company of the 'specially holy and blameless'39 but were loath to carry out the rules imposed upon the upright Every such man is, as it were, like 'one molten in the furnace' [Ezek. 22.22]. When his deeds come clearly to light, he shall be cast out of that company as being one who has no share

among the disciples of God. Men of knowledge shall reprove him according to his perfidy until he repent and thereby resume his place among the specially holy and blameless-that is, until it become clear that his actions are again in accordance with the interpretation of the Law adopted by the specially holy and blameless. Meanwhile, no man shall have commerce with him in matters either of property or of employment, for he has been cursed by all the holy ones of God on high.

The same applies again-in the future as it did in the past-to all who commit their hearts to idolatry and walk in the stubbornness of their hearts. All such have no portion in the household of the Law [Torah].

The same applies, once again, to all of their fellows that relapse in the company of scoffers. These too shall be judged; for they will have spoken error against the righteous ordinances and have rejected the Covenant of God and the pledge which they swore in 'the land of Damascus'

-that is, the new covenant.40 Neither they nor their families shall have a portion in the household of the Law [Torah].

About forty years will elapse from the death of the teacher of the community until all the men who take up arms and relapse in the company of the Man of Falsehood are brought to an end.41 At that time, the wrath of God will be kindled against Israel, and that will ensue which is described by the prophet when he says: 'No king shall there be nor priest nor judge nor any that reproves aright' [cf. Hos. 3.4].

But they of Jacob that have repented, that have kept the Covenant of God, shall then speak each to his neighbor to bring him to righteousness, to direct his steps upon the way. And God will pay heed to their words and hearken, and He will draw up a record of those that fear Him and esteem His name,42 to the end that salvation shall be revealed for all God-fearing men. Then ye shall again distinguish the righteous from the wicked, him that serves God from him that serves Him not. And God will 'show mercy unto thousands, unto them that love Him and keep His commandments'-yea, even unto a thousand generations.

As for those schismatics43 who, during the era when Israel was behaving perfidiously and defiling the sanctuary, indeed departed from the Holy City, relying (solely) on God, but who subsequently, without much [ad]o,* reverted to the popular [tre]nd-all of those shall be subjected to judgment by the sacred council,44 each according to his character.

Those too who indeed entered the Covenant but subsequently broke through the bounds of the Law-all of those shall be 'cut off from the midst of the camp' at the time when God's glory is made manifest to Israel. And along with them shall go those that sought to turn Judah to wickedness in the days when it was being put to the test.