Column 4

1 Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the sons of Israel strayed 2 from me, they shall offer me fat and blood.” The priests are the returnees of Israel 3 who went out from the land of Judah, and the Levites are those who joined them. And the sons of Zadok are the chosen ones of 4 Israel, those called by name, who stand in the last days. Here is the exact list of 5 their names by their generations, and the time of their standing, and the number of their troubles, and the years of 6 their sojourning, and the exact account of their deeds. The first holy ones, for whom 7 God atoned, declared the righteous righteous and the wicked wicked. And all who come after them, 8 acting according to the exact meaning of the Torah in which the first ones were instructed, until the completion of 9 the age of these years: according to the covenant that God established with the first ones, to atone 10 for their iniquities, so God will atone for them. And when the age is complete, by the number of these 11 years, there will be no more joining the house of Judah, but each one will stand on 12 his watchtower. The wall is built; the statute is far away. And in all these years 13 Belial will be let loose against Israel, as God spoke by the hand of Isaiah the prophet, son of 14 Amoz, saying, “Terror and pit and snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the land.” Its interpretation: 15 the three nets of Belial, about which Levi son of Jacob spoke, 16 with which he catches Israel, and he makes them appear to them as three kinds of 17 righteousness. The first is fornication, the second is wealth, the third is 18 defiling the sanctuary. Whoever climbs out of one is caught in another, and whoever is delivered from one is caught 19 in another. The builders of the wall, who walked after Zaw (Zaw is a spouter, 20 of whom it says, “They shall surely spout”), are caught in two: in fornication, by taking 21 two wives in their lifetime, whereas the foundation of creation is “male and female he created them.”⁠a