Column 5

1 And this is the rule for the men of the community who volunteer to turn back from all evil and to hold fast to all that he commanded as his will: to separate from the congregation of 2 the men of iniquity, to be a community in Torah and in property, answering to the sons of Zadok, the priests who keep the covenant, and to the majority of the men of 3 the community who hold fast to the covenant. At their word the decision of the lot shall go out for every matter, for Torah and for property and for judgment, to practice truth together, and humility, 4 righteousness and justice and loving kindness, and walking modestly in all their ways, so that no one shall walk in the stubbornness of his heart, to stray after his heart 5 and his eyes and the intent of his inclination, but rather to circumcise in the community the foreskin of the inclination and the stiff neck, to lay a foundation of truth for Israel, for a community of an eternal 6 covenant, to atone for all who volunteer for holiness in Aaron and for the house of truth in Israel,⁠a and for those who join them for community and for dispute and for judgment, 7 to declare guilty all who transgress the statute. And this is the rule of their ways concerning all these statutes when they are gathered into the community: everyone who enters the council of the community 8 shall enter the covenant of God in the sight of all who volunteer. And he shall take upon himself by a binding oath to return to the Torah of Moses, according to all that he commanded, with all 9 his heart and with all his soul, according to all that has been revealed of it to the sons of Zadok, the priests who keep the covenant and seek his will, and to the majority of the men of their covenant 10 who volunteer together for his truth and to walk in his will. And he shall take upon himself by the covenant to separate from all the men of iniquity who walk 11 in the way of wickedness. For they are not counted in his covenant, since they have not sought him or inquired after him in his statutes, to know the hidden things in which they have strayed, 12 incurring guilt; and the revealed things they have done with a high hand, raising up anger for judgment and for taking vengeance by the curses of the covenant, so that great judgments are carried out on them 13 for eternal destruction with no remnant. He shall not enter the water to touch the purity of the men of holiness, for they will not be purified 14 unless they turn from their evil, for impurity is in all who transgress his word. And no one shall be joined with him in his work or in his wealth, lest he burden him 15 with guilty iniquity. He shall keep far from him in every matter, for so it is written: “From every false matter you shall keep far.” And no man of the men of 16 the community shall answer at their word in any instruction or judgment. And no one shall eat anything of their property, or drink, or take anything at all from their hand 17 without paying for it, as it is written: “Have nothing more to do with a human who has only breath in his nostrils, for what is he worth?” For 18 all who are not counted in his covenant are to be set apart, they and all that is theirs. And the man of holiness shall not lean on any works of 19 vanity, for vanity are all who do not know his covenant. And all who spurn his word he will destroy from the world, and all their works are impurity 20 before him, and uncleanness is in all their property. And when anyone enters the covenant to act according to all these statutes, to be joined to the holy congregation, they shall examine 21 his spirit in the community, between one man and his fellow, according to his insight and his works in the Torah, at the word of the sons of Aaron who volunteer in the community to establish 22 his covenant and to keep all his statutes that he commanded to be done, and at the word of the majority of Israel who volunteer to return in the community to his covenant. 23 And they shall write them in order, each before his fellow, according to his insight and his works, so that all obey, each his fellow, the lesser the greater. And they shall 24 examine their spirit and their works year by year, to promote each according to his insight and the perfection of his way, or to set him back according to his perversity; to reprove 25 each his fellow in truth and humility and loving kindness toward a man. He shall not speak to him in anger or in complaint 26 or with a [stiff] neck [or in the zeal of] a wicked spirit, and he shall not hate him [in the uncircumcision of] his heart, but on that very day he shall reprove him, and not