The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

ÉMILE PUECH 267
swells] in their activity. Is it not in faithfulness that circulates 4 all their [currents]
and in knowledge all their waves? (vacat)
And now, foolish man, what is good to him who is not 5 formed? [And]
what is tranquillity to him who has not existed? And what is a decree to
him who has not been established? And what can the dead lament over all
their [days?] 6 You were fashioned for the Sheol and to the everlasting Pit
shall your return be when it shall awake and [expose] your sin. And the
inhabitants of 7 its dens shall cry out against your pleading and all those
destined-for-eternity, the seekers of the truth shall awake for your
judgment. [Then] 8 all the foolish people shall be destroyed and the sons of
iniquity shall not be found anymore [and a]ll those who hold fast to
wickedness [shall] wither away. [Then] 9 during your judgment, the foundations
of the firmament shall quake and all the [divi]ne/[etern]al ar[mies]
shall thunder forth and all those who had loved [truth/
righteousness shall revive.] 10 vacat “And you, the faithful elected, who pursue
[understanding and] who ardently seek [wisdom and] who keep vigil
11 over all knowledge, how can you say: “We are tired of understanding and
at [all times] and every[where] we have been vigilant in pursuing
knowledge?” 12 But for all the years of eternity, none gets tired! Does not
one take delight in truth forever? And knowledge, [ceaselessly,] does it not
serve us? And the so[ns of] 13 Heaven whose lot is eternal life, will they
truly claim: “We are exhausted by doing the works of truth and [we] are
worn out 14 all the time?” Is it not in the eternal light that they shall [all]
walk [in garments of] glory and an abundance of splendor? You, [you shall
stand] 15 in the firmaments of [holiness and within] the divine council for all
[the days of eternity (?) va]cat
‘And you, the understanding one[...”
Following a series of rhetorical questions leading to an indisputable
answer, the author takes a firm stand: “Then the Pit shall wake up and all
those destined for eternity, the seekers of the truth shall awake for your
judgment.” That is to say, that the foolish or wicked, who all through their
lives, did not take into consideration their fate in the hereafter, shall hope
for nothing less than a return to Sheol, which shall be changed from an
abode for the dead into a place of eternal perdition and destruction when
it shall wake up for judgment (Cyqt), the cosmos being called upon to
stand witness. But the righteous shall reawaken in order to enter a life of
glory for eternity in the firmaments of holiness in the company of angels
in the divine council. The “seekers of the truth,” who are “those destined
for eternity” (Mlw( hyhn) cannot be angels, who neither have to seek nor
to reawaken since they never sleep, because they possess wisdom, and
they are already within the divine council for eternity.