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Scrolls From the Dead Sea:
The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship


THE DAMASCUS DOCUMENT SCROLL:
TRANSLATION


1. ...with money...
2. ...[his means did not] suffice to [return it to him] and the year [for redemption approaches?]...
3. ...and may God release him? from his sins. Let not [ ] in one, for
4. it is an abomination....And concerning what he said (Lev. 25:14), ["When you sell
5. anything to or buy anything from] your neighbor, you shall not defraud one another," this is the expli[cation...
6. ...] everything that he knows that is found...
7. ...and he knows that he is wronging him, whether it concerns man or beast. And if
8. [a man gives his daughter to another ma]n, let him disclose all her blemishes to him, lest he bring upon himself the judgement
9. [of the curse which is said (Deut. 27:18)] (of the one) that "makes the blind to wander out of the way." Moreover, he should not give her to one unfit for her, for
10. [that is Kila'yim, (plowing with) o]x and ass and wearing wool and linen together. Let no man bring
11. [a woman into the holy] who has had sexual experience, whether she had such experience
12. [in the home] of her father or as a widow who had intercourse after she was widowed. And any woman
13. [upon whom] there is a bad name in her maidenhood in her father's home, let no man take her, except
14. [upon examination] by reliable [women] who have clear knowledge, by command of the Supervisor over
15. [the Many. After]ward he may take her, and when he takes her he shall act in accordance with the law ...and he shall not tell...
16. [ ] L [ ]

Transcription and translation by J. Baumgarten


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Comments: [email protected] (3/20/96)