The Qumran Community · a new plain-English translation from the original language
and his merciful kindnesses he has bestowed upon us from eternity to eternity [...] and the priests bless all
the men of God's lot who walk perfectly in all his ways, saying: 'May he bless you with all'
good, and keep you from all evil [...] and enlighten your heart with the wisdom of life, and grace you with eternal knowledge
and lift up his gracious face to you for eternal peace [...] and the Levites curse all the men
of the lot of Belial [...] and they answer and say: 'Cursed are you in all your wicked, guilty deeds [...] may he make you
a horror to God by the hand of all who take vengeance, and may he bring destruction upon you by the hand of all who repay
recompense [...] Cursed are you, without mercy, according to the darkness of your deeds, and accursed are you
in eternal fiery darkness [...] May God not be gracious to you when you call, and may he not forgive so as to atone for your iniquities [...]
may he lift up the face of his anger for your vengeance, and may you have no peace in the mouth of all who hold to the fathers [...]
And all who enter the covenant say, after those who bless and those who curse: 'Amen, amen' [...]
And the priests and the Levites continue and say: 'Cursed is he who, by the idols of his heart, turns to transgress
whoever enters this covenant, and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before himself, to turn back because of it [...] and it shall be
when he hears the words of this covenant, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying: 'Peace be with me
though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart' -- and his thirsty spirit shall be swept away with the sated, without
forgiveness [...] The anger of God and the jealousy of his judgments shall burn against him for eternal destruction [...] all
the curses of this covenant shall cling to him, and God shall set him apart for evil, and he shall be cut off from among all the sons of light when he turns back
from following God because of his idols and the stumbling block of his iniquity [...] his lot shall be set among those cursed forever [...]
And all who enter the covenant shall answer and say after them: 'Amen, amen' [...]
Thus they shall do year by year, all the days of the dominion of Belial [...] The priests shall pass
first, in the Rule, according to their spirits, one after another [...] and the Levites shall pass after them
and all the people shall pass third, in the Rule, one after another, by thousands and hundreds
and fifties and tens, so that every man of Israel may know his standing in the Community of God
for the eternal council [...] and no man shall be lowered from his standing, nor raised from the place of his lot [...]
for all shall be in a Community of truth, and good humility, and loving kindness, and righteous purpose
each man toward his fellow, in a holy council and sons of an eternal fellowship [...] and everyone who refuses to enter
[the] [covenant] [of God], to walk in the stubbornness of his heart, shall not [enter] [the] [Community] of his truth [...] for it loathed