Column 8

1 Its interpretation concerns all who observe the Torah in the house of Judah, whom 2 God will deliver from the house of judgment because of their toil and their faithfulness 3 to the Teacher of Righteousness.⁠a “And moreover, wealth betrays an arrogant man, and he does not 4 stay at home, who widens his throat like Sheol, and he, like death, is never satisfied. 5 All the nations are gathered to him, and all the peoples are assembled to him. 6 Will they not all take up a taunt against him, and mocking riddles about him, 7 and say, ‘Woe to him who multiplies what is not his own! How long will he weigh himself down with 8 pledges?’” Its interpretation concerns the Wicked Priest, who 9 was called by the name of truth at the beginning of his standing. But when he ruled 10 in Israel his heart grew proud, and he abandoned God and betrayed the statutes for the sake of 11 wealth. He robbed and gathered the wealth of men of violence who had rebelled against God, 12 and he took the wealth of peoples, to add to himself guilty iniquity. And ways of 13 abomination he practiced, in every kind of unclean impurity. “Will they not suddenly rise up, 14 those who bite you, and awake, those who make you tremble? And you will become plunder for them. 15 Because you plundered many nations, all the rest of the peoples will plunder you.” 16 The [interpretation of the matter] concerns the priest who rebelled 17 … the statutes of [God …] … him …