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The Community Rule — Column 3

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

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his soul amid the chastisements of the knowledge of the judgments of righteousness [...] he was not strong enough to turn back his life, and with the upright he shall not be reckoned [...]

and his knowledge, and his strength, and his wealth they shall not bring into the council of the Community [...] for in the mire of wickedness is his tilling, and defilements

are in his turning back [...] and he shall not be justified by releasing the stubbornness of his heart [...] and he looks toward darkness as the ways of light; among the eyes of the perfect

he shall not be reckoned [...] he shall not be cleared by atonements, and he shall not be purified by the water of purification, and he shall not be sanctified by seas

and rivers, and he shall not be purified by any waters of washing [...] unclean, unclean shall he be all the days he rejects the judgments of

God, refusing to be disciplined in the Community of His council [...] for by the spirit of the true counsel of God the ways of a man are atoned for, all

his iniquities, so that he may look upon the light of life [...] and by a holy spirit for the Community, in His truth, he shall be purified from all

his iniquities; and by a spirit of uprightness and humility his sin shall be atoned for [...] and by the submission of his soul to all the statutes of God his

flesh shall be purified, to be sprinkled with water of purification and to be sanctified with waters of cleansing [...] and he shall direct his steps to walk perfectly

in all the ways of God, as He commanded for the appointed times of His testimonies, and not to turn aside right or left, and there is no

stepping over any one of all His words [...] then he shall be accepted with atonements of a pleasing fragrance before God, and it shall become for him a covenant of

the everlasting Community [...]

For the Instructor, to make understand and to teach all the sons of light concerning the generations of all the sons of man

regarding all the kinds of their spirits, by their signs, according to their deeds in their generations, and the visitation of their afflictions together with

the periods of their peace [...] From the God of knowledge comes all that is and shall be [...] and before they came into being He established all their design [...]

and when they come into being for their appointed purposes, according to the design of His glory they fulfill their task, and there is nothing to change [...] in His hand are

the judgments of all, and He sustains them in all their affairs [...] and He created man to rule

the world, and He set for him two spirits by which to walk until the time of His visitation [...] Behold, the spirits of

truth and injustice [...] In a spring of light are the origins of truth, and from a source of darkness are the origins of injustice [...]

In the hand of the Prince of Lights is dominion over all the sons of righteousness; in the ways of light they walk [...] and in the hand of the Angel of

Darkness is all dominion over the sons of injustice, and in the ways of darkness they walk [...] and by the Angel of Darkness is the straying of

all the sons of righteousness, and all their sin, and their iniquities, and their guilt, and the transgressions of their deeds, under his dominion

according to the mysteries of God until his end [...] and all their afflictions and the appointed times of their distresses are under the dominion of his hostility [...]

and all the spirits of his lot, to cause the sons of light to stumble [...] but the God of Israel and the Angel of His truth help all

the sons of light [...] For He created the spirits of light and darkness, and upon them He founded every deed

[and] [upon] [their foundations] all labor, and upon their ways [all] [visitation] [...] One God has loved for all

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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