The Qumran Community · a new plain-English translation from the original language
And those who relapsed were given over to the blade [...] And such is the judgment of all who enter his covenant who
do not hold fast to these: they shall be visited for destruction by the hand of Belial. That is the day
when God will visit [...] were the princes of Judah, upon whom the wrath will be poured out
for they hoped for healing, but the affliction clung, and the affliction of all the rebels clung, because they did not turn from the way of
traitors, and they rolled about in whorish paths and in unjust riches, and vengeance and grudge-bearing
each man against his brother, and each man hated his neighbor [...] and each man hid himself from his near kin
and they drew near to lewdness, and grew strong for wealth and for gain, and each man did what was right in his own eyes [...]
and each man chose the stubbornness of his own heart, and did not separate from the people [...] and they broke loose with a high hand
to follow along the path of evildoers, of whom God spoke, saying their wine is the venom of serpents
and the cruel head of vipers [...] The serpents are the kings of the peoples, and their wine is
their ways, and the head of the vipers is the head of the kings of Greece, who came to execute
vengeance upon them [...] and in all this the builders of the wall and the daubers of plaster did not understand, for
one who weighs the wind and preaches lies preached to them, so that God's anger was kindled against his whole congregation [...]
And as Moses said: not for your righteousness nor for the uprightness of your heart do you come to possess
these nations, but because of his love for your fathers and his keeping of the oath [...]
And such is the judgment for the returnees of Israel: they turned aside from the way of the people, because of God's love for
the forefathers who testified after him; he loves those who come after them, for to them belongs
the covenant of the fathers [...] but against those who hate him, and against him who hates the builders of the wall, his anger was kindled, and as is the judgment
of this, so is it for everyone who rejects the commandments of God and abandons them and turns to the stubbornness of his own heart [...]
This is the word that Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, and Elisha
to Gehazi his servant [...] every man who joined himself to the renewed covenant within the land of Damascus [...]