Damascus Document

Damascus Document, CD-A column 3, Schechter 1910 English

By it* went astray the sons of Noah and *their families, and because of it they were rooted out. | Abraham did not walk in it and he *became friend because he kept the commandment of God and chose not | the will of his own spirit. And he delivered (it) to Isaac and to Jacob, and they observed (it) and were recorded as friends | of God and men of the covenant for ever. By them the sons of Jacob went astray and they were punished* according to | their error. And their children in Egypt walked in the stubbornness of their heart to take counsel against | the commandments of God and every man doing* that which was right in his own eyes and they ate blood. Therefore He exterminated | their males in the desert* when He spake* to them in the desert in Kadesh, Go up and possess* the *land. *And they provoked* His spirit, and hearkened not | unto the voice of their Maker, the commandments of their teachers, and murmured in their tents. Therefore the wrath of God was kindled | against their congregation, and their children perished by it, and their kings were exterminated by it, and their mighty men perished by it | and their land *was made desolate* by* it. By it were guilty the first that entered into the covenant, and they were delivered | unto the sword. Because they forsook the covenant of God and chose their* own will and sought after the stubbornness | of their heart, every man doing according to his pleasure. But with them that held fast to the commandments of God, | who were left among them, God confirmed His covenant with Israel for ever, revealing | unto them the hidden things in which all Israel erred: His holy Sabbaths and His glorious festivals, | the testimony of His righteousness and the ways of His truth and the desires of His will which a man shall do | and live by them. He opened before them and they digged a well of many waters, | and he that despises them shall not live. But they *wallowed in the transgression of man and in the ways of the unclean woman. | And they said that it belongs to us. But God in the *abundance of His wonder made atonement for their sins and forgave their transgression. | And He built them a sure house in Israel, the like of which never arose beforetime and | hitherto. They who hold fast to Him are for the life of eternity, and all glory of man is for them; as | God confirmed it to them through Ezekiel, the prophet, saying: “The priests and the Levites and the sons