He shall not touch the drink of the Many — neither the impure man, nor the one who gleaned with unwashed hands.

Introduction

Tohorot A (4Q274) is a Cave 4 halakhic text published in DJD XXXV (Baumgarten, 1999). Tohorot means "purifications" in Hebrew, and this text is part of a cluster of purity legislation from Qumran (alongside Tohorot B–D, Red Heifer Purity, and the Miscellaneous Rules) that elaborates the legal boundaries governing contamination in agricultural contexts.

The central concern of Tohorot A is gleaning — the act of gathering leftover grain and produce from harvested fields, a practice biblically mandated for the poor (Leviticus 19:9–10, Deuteronomy 24:19–22). The text regulates what happens when an impure person gleans: they contaminate not only themselves but potentially the harvested produce, and above all they must be prevented from touching the community's common drink (mashqeh ha-rabbim, the "drink of the Many" — the sectarian communal table). The rabbim (the Many) is the governing body of the Qumran community, whose shared table was a carefully guarded zone of ritual purity. Contact with their food and drink by an impure gleaner was a serious transgression.

The text envisions two scenarios: a person who gleans while impure (Fragment 1), and possibly a person gleaning in a state of purity (Fragment 2, partially readable). The vessel (keli) through which produce passes becomes a vector of impurity or purity. The pressing of olives or grapes (yesahtayu, "they shall press/squeeze") is mentioned as the terminal action after which further contamination questions may be resolved.

Tohorot A shares legal reasoning with the Damascus Document (CD) and the Temple Scroll (11QT) on questions of produce-purity, and anticipates the later rabbinic tractate Tohorot in the Mishnah, though with characteristically stricter Qumran rulings.

Fragment 1

[Line 1: too fragmentary.]

[Line 2:] [...] they shall glean [...] an impure man or [...] they shall glean [...]

[Line 3:] [...] for he shall not touch the drink of the Many — the one who is not [pure...]

[Line 4:] [...] they shall glean [...] the grain [...] and the [...] he shall not eat [...]

[Line 5:] [...] and all who glean [...] an impure man or an impure man [...]

[Line 6:] [...] a man who was not [pure...] and if he goes out among them [...] in a vessel [...]

[Line 7:] [...] in the field [...] in a vessel they shall not redeem them [...] until it is stripped [...]

[Line 8:] [...] and they shall press [...] until [the harvest] is complete [...]

[Line 9:] [...] and when it is complete [...] their labor [...] completed for their households [...]

Fragment 2

[Line 1: too fragmentary.]

[Line 2:] [...] they shall glean [...] in purity [...] if [...]

[Line 3:] [...] it will come down upon them [...] they shall not eat [...]

[Lines 4–8: too fragmentary for continuous translation.]

Colophon

Translated from the Hebrew of 4Q274 (Cave 4, Qumran), published in DJD XXXV (Baumgarten, 1999). The Qimron composite edition (CC BY 4.0) was the primary working text. Fragment 1 preserves the main halakhic content; Fragment 2 is largely lacunose. The phrase משקה הרבים (the drink of the Many) is a fixed Qumran term for the community's common table and is rendered literally. Lacunae marked with square brackets throughout.

Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated by Tulku Shira.

🌲

Source Text

4Q274 — Fragment 1

קטע א

[ . . . . .]
ילקטו [...] טמא איש [א]ו [...] ילקטו ל[...]
כי לא יגע במשקה הרבים [א]שר לא [ט]הור [...]
ילקטו [...] ה]גדיאה ואת [...] הטה [...] לא יאכל [...] ואת [...]
[...] וכל אשר ילקטו [...] איש [א]ו טמא איש [...]
[...] איש אשר לא [ה]וב [...] ואם יצא[ל]ו [...] בכלי [...]
[...] בשדה [...] בכלי לא יגאלו [...] עד אשר יע[ר]ה [...]
[...] ויסח[טו] [...] עד [ה]גמרה [...] [...]
[...] ומשלמ[ה] [...] עבודת[ם] [...] מלאו לביתם [...]

4Q274 — Fragment 2

קטע ב

[...]
ילקטו [...] ב]טהרה [...] אם [...]
ירד עליהם [...] לא יאכלו [...]
[...] [...]

Source Colophon

Hebrew transcription of 4Q274 (Tohorot A), Cave 4, Qumran. Published in DJD XXXV (Baumgarten, 1999), and included in the Qimron composite edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (CC BY 4.0, Zenodo 2020). Lacunae marked with brackets; uncertain letters unmarked.

🌲