The Qumran Community · a new plain-English translation from the original language
In the council of the Community: twelve men and three priests, perfect in all that has been revealed of all
the Torah, to do truth and righteousness and justice and love of kindness and walking humbly, each man with his fellow,
to keep faith in the land with a steadfast inclination and a broken spirit, and to atone for iniquity through doing justice
and the distress of testing, and to walk with all in the measure of truth and in the fixed order of the time [...] when these are in Israel
the council of the Community shall be established in truth as an eternal planting, a house of holiness for Israel, and a foundation of the holy of
holies for Aaron, witnesses of truth for judgment, and the chosen of favor, to atone for the land and to render
to the wicked their recompense [...] it is the tested wall, the precious cornerstone; not
shall its foundations shake, nor shall they be moved from their place — a dwelling of the holy of holies
for Aaron, with the knowledge of them all, for a covenant of judgment, and to offer a pleasing aroma, and a house of perfection and truth in Israel
to establish [...] a covenant by the everlasting statutes, [...] and they shall be an acceptance to atone for the land and to decide the judgment of wickedness in a perfect way, and there is no injustice. When these have been established in the foundation of the Community for two full years in the perfect way,
they shall be separated as holy within the council of the men of the Community [...] and every matter hidden from Israel but found by the man
who seeks God — he shall not hide it from these, out of fear of a backsliding spirit [...] and when these become a Community in Israel
in accordance with these arrangements, they shall separate from the midst of the session of the men of injustice, to go into the wilderness, to prepare there the way of Him,
as it is written: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' [...]
This is the study of the Torah [which] He commanded through Moses, to do according to all that has been revealed, time after time,
and as the prophets revealed by His holy spirit. [...] And every man of the men of the Community, the covenant of
the Community — whoever turns aside from any commandment in anything, with a high hand, shall not touch the purity of the men of holiness
and shall not know anything of their counsel until his deeds are cleansed from all injustice, so that he walks in the perfect way. [...] And they shall bring him near
into counsel according to the mouth of the Many, and afterward he shall be inscribed in his rank. [...] And according to this judgment for all who are added to the Community. [...]
And these are the judgments by which the men of perfect holiness shall walk, each man with his fellow:
all who enter the council of holiness, who walk in the perfect way as He commanded — every man among them
who transgresses a word of the Torah of Moses with a high hand or through deceit shall be sent away from the council of the Community
and shall not return again. [...] And no man of the men of holiness shall mix his property or his counsel with him in any
matter. [...] But if he acts in error, he shall be separated from the purity and from the counsel, and they shall seek the judgment
that he shall not judge anyone, nor be asked about any counsel, for two full years. [...] If his way is perfected
in the session, in study and in counsel, [according] [to] [the mouth of] the Many, if he does not err again until two full years are completed for him
of days. [...]