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The War Scroll — Column 9

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

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they shall begin to strike among the slain, and all the people shall be silent at the sound of the alarm [...] and the priests shall be sounding the trumpets

of the slain, to prevail in the battle, [until] the enemy is smitten and they turn their backs [...] and the priests shall sound to prevail in battle

And when they are smitten before them, the priests shall blow the trumpets of the summons, and all the men of the reserve shall go out to them from among

the front formations [...] and six banners shall stand, and the banner drawing near, all of them seven battle-lines, twenty-eight thousand

men of war, and the horsemen six thousand [...] all these shall pursue to destroy the enemy in the battle of God, for a complete

destruction forever [...] and the priests shall blow for them the trumpets of pursuit, and [they shall divide] against all the enemy, to pursue to complete destruction [...] and the cavalry

shall turn back on the flanks of the battle until the destruction [...] and when the slain fall, the [priests] shall sound the alarm from a distance, and they shall not come

into the midst of the slain to defile themselves with their unclean blood, for they are holy [...] [they shall not] profane the oil of their priestly anointing with the blood

of the nation of vanity [...]

The Rule for changing the order of the battle banners, to arrange the formation upon the ram[part] [...] [for] [going out of] the wheel of the slingers and towers

and bow, and towers [...] and at the advance of the light-armed, and the heads go out, and the wings [go out] from [both] sides of the formation, [to] [rout]

the enemy [...] and the shields of the towers shall be three cubits long, and their spears [in length] eight cubits [...] and the [towers]

go out from the formation, a hundred shields, and a hundred on the face of the tower [...] [all of them] [shall surround] the tower on three sides, the front

three hundred shields [...] and two gates for each tower, one for the [right] [and] one for the left [...] and on all the shields of the towers

they shall write: on the first, [Michael]; [on] [the] [second], [Gabriel]; [on] [the] [third], Sariel; on the fourth, Raphael [...]

Michael and Gabriel to the [right], [and] [Sariel] [and] [Raphael] [to] [the left] [...]

And [...] to the four [...] [and] [if] an ambush, [they shall set] for [the formation]

And [...] [they shall fell] among [the slain] [...]

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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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