Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

oundaries . . .
33. The Sons Of Righteousness (Proverbs - 4Q424) (Plate 11)
In this text, another typical 'Wisdom' text, there is the usual Qumran vocabulary of 'Judgement',
'Riches', 'Knowledge', and in Line 1.9, an additional one - 'zeal for Truth'. This is preceded and
followed by an interesting additional evocation of 'deceitful' or 'cunning lips', which will also be of
interest in the parallel admonitions which follow next in the Demons of Death (Beatitudes). In 1.13
there is a curious reference to 'swallowing', in this case coupled with a reference on the same line to
'the Kittim'. A conjunction of this kind is always interesting, but its fragmentary nature does not
permit any further analysis. Still, the expression Kittim has little evident relationship to the rest of the
text and usually relates in some way, as we have seen, to foreign, overseas armies coming from the
West, either Macedonian or Roman.
We have already extensively discussed the allusion in 3.10 to 'Sons of Righteousness', with which the
extant text closes, above. It is not only a verbal parallel, but probably also a synonym for 'the sons of
Zadok', particularly when this expression is taken in its esoteric sense. In Lines 2.8-11 the expression
is coupled with allusions to 'the removers of the boundary' and 'Riches', both also paralleled in
Columns i and iv of the Damascus Document, not to mention the last column of the Damascus
Document which we translate at the end of the next Chapter. In Line 8, it is preceded by another
curious reference: 'zeal' (of a soldier?). It is not uninteresting that this 'zeal' is also paralleled in the allimportant
aftermath of the exegesis of 'way in the wilderness' in Column ix.24 of the Community Rule
discussed above - 'zeal for the Law' and 'the time of the Day of Vengeance'.