Column 1

1 For […] … for his life, [the book of the] rule of the community: to seek 2 God with [all the heart] and with [all the soul], to do what is good and upright before him, as 3 he commanded by the hand of Moses and by the hand of all his servants the prophets; and to love all⁠a 4 that he has chosen and to hate all that he has rejected; to keep far from all evil 5 and to cling to all good works; and to do truth and righteousness and justice 6 in the land; and to walk no longer in the stubbornness of a guilty heart and eyes of fornication, 7 doing all evil; and to bring all who volunteer to do the statutes of God 8 into the covenant of kindness, to be joined in the counsel of God and to walk perfectly before him in all 9 that has been revealed for their appointed times; and to love all the sons of light,⁠b each⁠c 10 according to his lot in the counsel of God, and to hate all the sons of darkness, each according to his guilt 11 in the vengeance of God. And all who volunteer for his truth shall bring all their knowledge and their strength 12 and their wealth into the community of God, to purify their knowledge in the truth of the statutes of God, and to order their strength 13 according to the perfection of his ways, and all their wealth according to his righteous counsel; and not to step aside from any one⁠d 14 of all the words of God in their ages, and not to advance their times or to fall behind 15 any of their appointed times; and not to turn from his true statutes to go to the right or to the left. 16 And all who come into the rule of the community shall pass over into the covenant before God, to do 17 according to all that he has commanded, and not to turn back from following him because of any fear or dread or testing 18 that comes in the dominion of Belial. And when they pass over into the covenant, the priests 19 and the Levites shall bless the God of salvation and all his works of truth, and all 20 who pass over into the covenant shall say after them, “Amen, amen.” 21 And the priests shall recount the righteous acts of God in his mighty works 22 and proclaim all his merciful kindnesses toward Israel. And the Levites shall recount 23 the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their guilty transgressions and their sins in the dominion of 24 Belial. [And all] who pass over into the covenant shall confess after them, saying, “We have done wrong,⁠e 25 we have transgressed, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly, we and our fathers before us, by walking 26 [contrary to the statutes of] truth and righteousness. [God has carried out] his judgment on us and on our fathers,