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The War Scroll — Column 7

The Qumran Community · a new plain-English translation from the original language

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And the men of the Rule shall be from forty years old up to fifty years old [...] and the arrangers of the camps shall be from fifty years old up to fifty-five [...] and the officers

shall also be from forty years old up to fifty years old [...] and all who strip the slain and plunder the spoil and cleanse the land and keep the equipment

and the one who arranges the provisions — all of them shall be from twenty-five years old up to thirty years old [...] and no young boy or woman shall come into their camps when they go out

from Jerusalem to go to battle, until they return [...] and anyone lame, or blind, or crippled, or a man who has a permanent blemish in his flesh, or a man defiled with the uncleanness

of his flesh — none of these shall go with them to battle [...] all of them shall be volunteers for war, and perfect in spirit and body, and ready for the day of vengeance [...] and every

man who is not pure from his discharge on the day of battle shall not go down with them, for holy angels are together with their hosts [...] and there shall be a space

between all their camps and the place of the hand, about a thousand cubits [...] and no indecent nakedness of anything shall be seen surrounding all their camps [...]

And in the order of the battle lines, to advance against the enemy, line against line, they shall go out from the middle gate to between the lines, seven

priests from among the sons of Aaron, clothed in white linen garments: a linen tunic and linen breeches, girded with a sash of linen, fine twined, of blue

and purple and scarlet, with a design of embroidery, the work of a skilled craftsman, and turbans upon their heads — garments of war; and into the sanctuary they shall not

bring them [...] the one priest shall walk before all the men of the battle line to strengthen their hands in battle [...] and in the hand of the sixth shall be

the trumpets of summons, and the trumpets of remembrance, and the trumpets of alarm, and the trumpets of pursuit, and the trumpets of gathering [...] and when the priests go out

to between the lines, seven Levites shall go out with them, and in their hand seven ram's-horns of the jubilee [...] and three officers from the Levites before

the priests and the Levites [...] and the priests shall blow the two trumpets of the [summons] [...] [battle] over fifty shields [...]

and fifty men of the middle rank shall go out from the one gate and [...] [the] Levites, officers [...] and with

every rank and rank they shall go out according to all this [Rule] [...] [the men of] the middle rank from the gates

[and] [they shall stand] between the two ranks and [...] [the] [battle] [...]

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An original translation made in 2026 by Scriptorium Press, working directly from the original language text (never from another English translation), in one consistent modern voice. Free to read, download, and listen — no accounts, no ads, nothing for sale.

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