Damascus Document

Damascus Document, CD-A column 10, Schechter 1910 English

|| * witness before the judges to kill at his mouth whose days were not fulfilled to pass | among them that are numbered* and who fears* not God. No man shall be* believed as a witness against his neighbour | who transgresses a word of the commandment with a high hand until he was worthy to repent. | And this is the usage of the judges of the congregation. Ten men selected | of the congregation according to the *age; four of the tribe of Levi and Aaron and six of Israel | learned in the Book of *the Hagu and in the foundations of the covenant, from five | and twenty years old even unto sixty years old. But none shall be appointed after he be | from sixty years old and above to judge the congregation. For through the unfaithfulness of man | his days* diminished, and when the wrath of God* was kindled against the inhabitants of the earth, he said to remove their | minds before they shall complete their days. As to be cleansed in water. No | man shall wash in filthy waters or not sufficient for *immersion of a man. | None shall cleanse himself in the *waters of a vessel. And every pool in a rock in which there is not sufficient | water for* immersion which an unclean person has touched, its waters shall be contaminated *like the waters of the vessel. | As to the Sabbath to keep it according to its law, no man shall do work on the sixth day | from the time in which the globe of the sun | is removed from the gate in its *fulness, for it is He who said, “Keep the | Sabbath day to sanctify it.” And on the day of the Sabbath no man shall utter a word | of *folly. And surely none shall demand any debt of his neighbour. None shall judge on matters of property, and gain. | None shall speak on matters of work and labour to be done on the following morning. | No man shall walk in the field to do the work of *his affairs | on *the day of the Sabbath. None shall walk outside his city* more than a thousand cubits. | No man shall eat on the day of the Sabbath but of that which is prepared or perishing* | in the field. None shall eat or drink but *from that which was* in the camp.