4Q159 (4QOrdinances^a)
You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy... You shall give him his wages before the sun sets.
The Ordinances (4Q159, 4QOrd^a) is a Hebrew legal composition from Cave 4 at Qumran, preserved in six small fragments. It is one of several Qumran halakhic texts — alongside Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah and the Damascus Document — that record the sect's distinctive rulings on Mosaic law, often diverging from both the Jerusalem Temple establishment and the proto-rabbinic tradition. The text date is unclear; the script is early Herodian, suggesting composition or copying around 50–1 BCE.
The text's most important ruling concerns the half-shekel census tax of Exodus 30:11–16. The biblical passage commands every Israelite who is numbered to give a half-shekel as atonement money for the sanctuary. The Temple establishment and later rabbinic tradition read this as an annual obligation — the annual Machatsit ha-Shekel that funded the Temple cult. The Ordinances text takes a different view: the payment is due once in a person's lifetime, not every year. This is not merely a minor legal difference. It is a fundamental rejection of a major Temple revenue mechanism and reflects the community's deep suspicion of the Jerusalem priesthood and its fiscal practices.
The remaining fragments treat witnesses and legal testimony, the prohibition of mixed cloth (sha'atnez), and possibly gleaning rights. All are lacunose; the half-shekel passage is the only section that survives in sufficient continuity for confident translation.
The Census Tax
The ruling opens in medias res — we enter the argument after the biblical text of Exodus 30 has been cited or discussed. The surviving text states:
And all who are mustered shall give no more than once in their life.
The funds go to a treasury. From the treasury they are distributed to the needs of the cities of Israel. What exactly this means — whether it is a welfare fund for the poor, a central community treasury, or something else — cannot be determined from the surviving fragments. The contrast with the Jerusalem Temple's annual collection is unmistakable: where the Temple drew a steady stream of silver from every adult male Israelite year after year, the Qumran ruling cuts that stream to a single lifetime contribution. The atonement achieved by the half-shekel, in this reading, does not need to be renewed annually.
The ruling may also touch on when the payment begins — some reconstructions of the damaged lines suggest a minimum age (perhaps twenty years, echoing the numbering of Numbers 1). If so, the text is integrating the census law with the covenant entry age known from the Community Rule.
On Witnesses
A later fragment addresses the rules of legal testimony. The surviving words concern the standing of witnesses in legal proceedings and the requirement for multiple witnesses — drawing on the Deuteronomic legislation of Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15 (by the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses a matter shall be established). The specific Qumran application — whether it concerns internal community discipline, property disputes, or capital matters — cannot be recovered from the extant fragments.
[The witness section is too lacunose for continuous translation. Surviving elements include the words testimony, assembly of the congregation, and two witnesses.]
On Mixed Cloth
A fragment preserves part of a ruling on sha'atnez — the biblical prohibition on wearing garments woven from both wool and linen together (Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:11). The Qumran ruling:
A man shall not wear a garment of mixed cloth —
The rest of the ruling is lost. It is unclear whether the Ordinances extends the prohibition, restricts it, or simply restates the biblical law in the community's authoritative legal voice.
Colophon
The Ordinances (4Q159 — 4QOrd^a)
Composed in Hebrew; copied early Herodian period (c. 50–1 BCE). Six fragments, Cave 4, Qumran. Edited by John Allegro in Qumrân Cave 4: I (DJD V; Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), 6–9; corrected by John Strugnell in his critical notes (RQ 7, 1970, 163–276). Principal analysis: Lawrence Schiffman, Sectarian Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1983), Chapter 6.
The text is a legal composition in the Second Temple halakhic tradition — not a narrative, not a psalm, but a series of rulings. The half-shekel passage (Fragment 1, Col. ii) is the anchor of the text and its most important contribution to our understanding of Qumran legal thought. The other fragments (witnesses, sha'atnez) preserve too little for sustained analysis.
The Blood Rule applies: translated from the Hebrew. Lacunae are marked honestly throughout. The bracketed restorations in the source text are standard scholarly reconstructions, not invented text. Reference consulted: F. García Martínez & E. J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition vol. 1 (Brill, 1997), 320–323.
Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church.
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Source Text
4Q159 (4QOrd^a) — Hebrew
Fragment 1, Column ii — The Half-Shekel Ruling
(The best-preserved portion of the text. The ruling opens mid-sentence; the beginning of the column is lost.)
1. [ ]ו[ ]
2. [ בספר] הפקודים [על בני ישראל ]כ[ ]
3. [ ]עד עשרים [שנה ]
4. [ ]ולא ישלח [איש כסף פקודיו כי אם פ]עם א[חת בחייו ]
5. [ו]כול אשר יפקד לא יתן כי אם פ[עם אחת ב]חייו [ ]
6. [ ]ונתנ[ו על ב]ית האוצ[ר ]
7. [ ויוצ]א להם [כ]ול אשר [חסרו ]
8. [ ]בערי ישר[אל ]
(Line 5 is the most securely preserved: "And all who are mustered shall give no more than once in their life." The treasury distribution in lines 6–8 is partially reconstructed.)
Fragment 2 — Witnesses
(Highly lacunose)
1. [ ]ועדות [ ]
2. [ ]קהל ה[עדה ]
3. [ שני ע]דים [ ]
4. [ ]
Fragment 5 — Sha'atnez
(Partially preserved)
1. [לא יל]בש איש שעטנז [ ]
2. [ ]צמר ופשתים [יחדיו ]
3. [ ]
Source Colophon
4Q159 (4QOrd^a). Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Six fragments. Edited by J. M. Allegro, Qumrân Cave 4: I (DJD V; Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), 6–9. Critical corrections by J. Strugnell, Revue de Qumrân 7 (1970), 163–276. Transcription consulted: F. García Martínez & E. J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition vol. 1 (Brill, 1997), 320–323.
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