d significant part of it.(28)
The coming judgment of God is represented rather as a judgment on the
faithless members of the sect, including those who have seceded from it or
been expelled, than in its more general aspects. The long eschatological
passage in B (20 15 to the end) is illegible in spots near the beginning,
but the general tenor is clear:
In that consummation the anger of God will be inflamed against
Israel, as he said, "There is no king and no prince, and no judge
and none that reproves in righteousness" (cf. Hos. 3 4). Those who
turn from the transgression [of Jacob](29) and keep the covenant
of God will then confer with one another; their footsteps will be
firm in the way of God (and the prophecy will be fulfilled which
says), "And God hearkened to their words and heard, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for those that fear God and
think on his name" (Mal. 3 16), until deliverance and
righteousness emerge for those that fear God, "and ye shall return
and see the difference between righteous and wicked, and between a
servant of God and one who serves him not" (Mal. 3 18). And he
shows favor to those that love him and keep his commandments, for
a thousand generations....(30)
Each man according to his spirit, shall they be judged by his holy
counsel, and all who have broken through the bounds of the law, of
those who entered into the covenant, when the glory of God shines
out on Israel, shall be cut off from the midst of the camp, and
with them all the evil-doers of Judah, in the days when it is
tried in the fire. But all who held firmly by these precepts,
going out and coming in in conformity with the law, and listened
to the voice of the teacher, will confess(31) before God.... "We
have done evil, we, and our fathers also, when they went contrary
to the statutes of the covenant, and faithful are thy judgments
upon us." And they will not act presumptuously against his holy
statutes and his righteous judgment and his faithful testimonies.
They will be instructed in the ancient judgments by which the
followers of the unique one were judged, and will hearken to the
words of the teacher of righteousness. And they will not
controvert the righteous statutes when they hear them; they will
rejoice and be glad, and their heart will be strong, and they will
show thems
|