1 Blank This is the rule for the men of the Community who freely volunteer to convert from all evil and to keep themselves steadfast in all he prescribes in compliance with his will. They should keep apart from
2 men of sin in order to constitute a Community in law and possessions, and acquiesce to the authority of the sons of Zadok, the priests who safeguard the covenant and to the authority of the multitude of the men
3 of the Community, those who persevere steadfastly in the covenant. By its authority, decision by lot shall be made in every affair involving the law, property and judgment, to achieve together truth and humility,
4 justice and uprightness, compassionate love and seemly behaviour in all their paths. No-one should walk in the stubbornness of his heart in order to go astray following his heart
5 and his eyes and the musings of his inclination. Instead he should circumcise in the Community the foreskin of his tendency and of his stiff neck in order to lay a foundation of truth for Israel, for the Community of the eternal
6 covenant. They should make atonement for all who freely volunteer for holiness in Aaron and for the house of truth in Israel and for those being entered together for the Community for the lawsuit and for the judgment.
7 They should proclaim as guilty all those who sabotage the decree. These are the regulations of behaviour concerning all these decrees when they are enrolled in the Community. Whoever enters the council of the Community
8 enters the covenant of God in the presence of all who freely volunteer. He shall swear with a binding oath to revert to the Law of Moses with all that it decrees, with whole
9 heart and whole soul, in compliance with all that has been revealed concerning it to the sons of Zadok, the priests who keep the covenant and interpret his will and to the multitude of the men of their covenant
10 who freely volunteer together for this truth and to walk according to his will. He should swear by the covenant to be segregated from all the men of sin who walk
11 along paths of irreverence. For they are not included in his covenant since they have neither sought nor examined his decrees in order to learn the hidden matters in which they err
12 by their own fault and because they treated revealed matters with disrespect; this is why wrath will rise up for judgment in order to effect revenge by the curses of the covenant, in order to administer fierce
13 punishments for everlasting annihilation without there being any remnant. Blank He should not go into the waters to share in the pure food of the men of holiness, for they have not been cleansed
14 unless they turn away from their wickedness, for it is unclean among all the transgressors of his word. No-one should associate with him in his work or in his possessions in order not to encumber him
15 with blameworthy sin; rather he should remain at a distance from him in every task, for it is written as follows: ‘You shall remain at a distance from every lie’. None of the men
16 of the Community should acquiesce to his authority in any law or regulation. No-one should eat of any of his possessions, or drink or accept anything from his hands,
17 unless at its price, for it is written: ‘Shun the man whose breath is in his nostrils, for how much is he worth?’ For
18 all those not numbered in his covenant will be segregated, they and all that belongs to them. No holy man should support himself on any deed of
19 futility, for futile are all those who do not know the covenant. And all those who scorn his word he shall cause to vanish from the world; all his deeds are uncleanness
20 before him and there is uncleanness in all his possessions. And when someone enters the covenant to behave in compliance with all these decrees, enrolling in the assembly of holiness, they shall test
21 their spirits in the Community (discriminating) between a man and his fellow, in respect of his insight and of his deeds in law, under the authority of the sons of Aaron, those who freely volunteer in the Community to set up
22 his covenant and to follow all the decrees which he commanded to fulfil, and under the authority of the majority of Israel, those who freely volunteer to return within the Community to his covenant.
23 And they shall be recorded in the Rule, each one before his fellow, according to his insight and his deeds, in such a way that each one obeys his fellow, junior under senior.
24 And their spirit and their deeds must be tested, year after year, in order to upgrade each one to the extent of his insight and the perfection of his path, or to demote him according to his failings. Each should reproach
25 his fellow in truth, in meekness and in compassionate love for the man. Blank No-one should speak to his brother in anger or muttering,
26 or with a hard [neck or with passionate] spiteful intent and he should not detest him [in the stubbornness] of his heart, but instead reproach him that day so as not
