Column 9

1 their hand shall begin to bring down the slain. And all the people shall cease from the sound of the war cry, but the priests shall keep sounding the trumpets of 2 the slain to direct the battle until the enemy is struck down and turns his back. And the priests shall keep sounding to direct the battle, 3 and when they are struck down before them, the priests shall blow the trumpets of the summons, and all the skirmishers shall go out to them from the midst of 4 the front lines. And six battalions shall stand, together with the battalion that is engaged, seven lines in all, twenty-eight thousand 5 men of war, and the riders six thousand. All these shall pursue to destroy the enemy in the war of God, for eternal 6 destruction. And the priests shall blow for them the trumpets of the pursuit, and they shall divide against all the enemy for a pursuit of destruction. And the cavalry 7 shall turn them back at the flanks of the battle until they are destroyed. And when the slain fall, the priests shall keep sounding from a distance, and they shall not come 8 into the midst of the slain so as to be defiled by their unclean blood, for they are holy. They shall [not] profane the oil of their priestly anointing with the blood of 9 a nation of vanity. 10 The rule for changing the order of the battalions of war, to draw up the position against … […] … to go out as a semicircle with towers, 11 and an arc with towers, and as a slow advance with columns going out and wings [going out] from both sides of the line, to melt 12 the enemy. And the shields of the towers shall be three cubits long, and their spears eight cubits long. And the towers 13 go out from the line, a hundred shields, and a hundred to the face of the tower. All of them shall surround the tower on the three front sides, 14 three hundred shields. And there are two gates to a tower, one on the [right and] one on the left. And on all the shields of the towers⁠a 15 they shall write: on the first, Michael; [on the second, Gabriel; on the third,] Sariel; on the fourth, Raphael.⁠b 16 Michael and Gabriel on the [right, and Sariel and Raphael on the left.] 17 And […] for the four [… And if] they set an ambush for the [line] 18 and [… they shall bring down] the [slain …] 19 […] 20 […]