Description and Background

The small, heavily worn fragments known as 1Q22 Words of Moses comprise four columns of text in a handwriting described as "irregular and clumsy."¹ Because the manuscript had been rolled with the beginning on the inside, only the first part of it was preserved.

The text contains Moses' farewell discourse to the children of Israel. Most of this address consists of paraphrases from Deuteronomy.

In the following translation of 1Q22 Words of Moses,² subscript numbers indicate lines of text in the original, brackets enclose the translator's conjectural restorations based on clues such as parallel passages and repetitious formulas, the word Blank marks spaces left blank on purpose (new paragraph) or by mistake, and bracketed ellipsis points represent lacunae (missing text) of unspecified length.³

Translation

Column I

₁ [And God spoke] to Moses in the year [forty] of the departure of the children of Israel from [the land of] Egypt, in the eleventh month, ₂ the first day of the month, saying: [Muster] all the congregation,⁴ climb [Mount Nebo] and stay there, you ₃ and Eleazar, Aaron's son. Blank Interpret [for the heads of] families of the levites and for all the [priests] and decree to the sons of ₄ Israel the words of the Law which I commanded [you] on Mount Sinai to decree to them. [Proclaim] in their ears everything ₅ accurately, for [I will require] it from them. [Take] the heavens and the [earth as witnesses] for they will not love ₆ what I have commanded them, they and their so[ns, all the] days [they live upon the ea]rth. [However] I announce ₇ that they will desert me and ch[oose the sins of the na]tions, their abominations and their disreputable acts [and will serve] ₈ their gods, who for them will be a trap and a snare. They will [violate all the] holy [assemblies], the sabbath of the covenant, [the festivals] which today I command [to be kept. This is why] I will strike them with a great [blow] in the midst of the land for ₁₀ the conquest of which they are going to cross the Jordan there. And when all the curses happen to them and strike them until they die and until ₁₁ they are destroyed, then they will know that the truth has been carried out on them. Blank And Moses turned towards Eleazar, son of ₁₂ [Aaron] and to Joshua [son of Nun, saying] to them: Speak [all the words of the Law, without leaving any out. Be silent,]

Column II

₁ Israel, and listen! On this day [you are going to become the peo]ple of God, your G[od. Ke]ep [my rules], my stipulations, [my commandments] which ₂ today [I] am commanding you [to carry out.⁵ And when you cross the Jordan] for me to give you large [and good] cities, ₃ houses full of every [wealth, vineyards and olive groves] which you [did not plant, wel]ls bored which you did not ₄ dig, and you eat and become replete,⁶ [bew]are of raising your heart and fo[rgetting what] I command you today; ₅ [for] it is your life and your old age.⁷ Blank [And] Moses [spoke] and [said to the sons of Is]rael: Forty ₆ [years] have passed [from the] day of our departure from the land [of Egypt,⁸ and] today God, our G[od has caused these wo]rds [to issue] from his mouth ₇ [all his pre]cepts {and all his precepts} How [shall I alone carry] your burden, [your weight, your qua]rrels? ₈ [When] the covenant [has been estab]lished and the path [on which you must] walk has been decreed, [choose for yourselves wise men who] will explain ₉ [to you and your so]ns all the words of this Law. [Be] very [careful,] for your lives, [to keep them, lest] the wrath ₁₀ [of your God] against you be enkindled and reach you, and it closes the skies above, which make rain fall upon you, and [the water] from under[neath the earth which give you ₁₁ [the harv]est.⁹ Blank And Moses [continued speaking] to the so[ns of Is]rael: Th[ese are the command]ments [which God] commands you to carry out ₁₂ [. . .] . . . [. . .]

Column III

₁ [Every seven years you shall leave the land] at rest, [and the yield of the land's rest will provide you] with food, you [and your animals and the beasts of the] field. ₂ [. . . And what] remains will be for the po[or from among your brothers] who are in the la[nd. No]-one will so[w his field] or prune [his vine.] ₃ [No-one will harvest his harvest or] gather [anything. Keep al[l the words of] this covenant ₄ [carrying them out,] for [. . .] in order to do [. . .] And in this year you shall grant a release. ₅ [Every creditor] who [has lent something to] someone, or [who possesses something from his brother,] will grant a re[lease to his fell]ow for ₆ [God], your [God, has proclaimed the release. You are to demand restitution] from the fore[igner, but from your brother] you shall not demand restitution, for in that year ₇ ¹⁰[God will bless you, forgiving you your si]ns. . .] ₈ [. . .] in the year [. . .] of the month of ₉ [. . .] on this day [. . . Because your fathers] wandered ₁₀ [in the wilderness until the tenth day of the month {the [. . . on the te]nth [day] of the month} ₁₁ You shall refrain [from all work.] And on the tenth day of the month, you shall atone [. . .] of the month ₁₂ [. . .] they shall take [. . .]¹¹

Column IV

₁ in the congregation of the gods [and in the council of the holy] ones, and in [. . . favour of the sons of Is]rael and on behalf of the la[nd] ₂ [And you shall] take [the blood and] pour [it] on the earth [. . .] ₃ [. . .] and it will be forgiven them [. . . And] Moses [spoke saying:] Do [. . .] ₄ [. . .] eternal precepts for your generations [. . .] And on the [. . .] day ₅ [. . .] he will take [. . .] the children of Israel [. . .] ₆ [. . . ] all that which [. . .] for all ₇ [. . .] of the [. . .] year the person who [. . .] ₈ [. . .] upon the book [. . .] the priest [. . .] ₉ [. . .] he will lay his ha[nds . . .] all this ₁₀ [. . .] year these ₁₁ [. . .] of the two . . . [. . .]

Commentary

1Q22 Words of Moses contains elements of the treaty-covenant pattern found in the Old Testament. This pattern includes (1) a preamble that introduces God as the one initiating the covenant or that introduces his prophet as his designated spokesman; (2) a brief review of God's relations with his people in the past; (3) the terms of the covenant, that is, the specific commandments that God expects Israel to observe; (4) a formal witness by the people that they understand these commandments and will keep them; and (5) a list of blessings that the people will receive if they keep the commandments and a list of curses that will fall upon them if they fail to observe the commandments; and (6) provisions for reminding the people of the covenant. All this is reminiscent of the ancient Israelite covenant assembly described in the Bible and in chapters 1–6 of the book of Mosiah (in the Book of Mormon)¹² and may be illustrated in the following manner:

1.  Dominique Barthélemy and Jozef T. Milik, Qumran Cave I,  Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, vol. 6 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), 91.

2.  Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, trans. Wilfred G. E. Watson, 2nd ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 276–7.

3.  See ibid., xxv and xxvi, for a fuller explanation of these devices.

4.  Compare Leviticus 8:3; Numbers 20:8; Deuteronomy 4:10; 31:12.

5.  For 1Q22 I 12–II 2, see Deuteronomy 27:9–10.

6.  Compare Deuteronomy 6:10–1.

7.  Compare Deuteronomy 30:20.

8.  Compare Deuteronomy 2:7; 8:2.

9.  Compare Deuteronomy 11:17.

10.  Compare Deuteronomy 15:1–18; Leviticus 25.

11.  Compare Leviticus 23:26–32.

12.  Mosiah 1–6 describes a religious convocation of the Nephites, an Israelite group that had settled in the New World. The occasion was the coronation of a new king, Mosiah, at the temple in the Nephite city of Zarahemla, around 130 B.C. See my article "King, Coronation, and Covenant in Mosiah 1–6," in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1991), 215–6. Evidence also demonstrates that this Nephite assembly was a celebration of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles. See John A. Tvedtnes, "King Benjamin and the Feast of Tabernacles," in By Study and Also by Faith: Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley, ed. John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks (Salt Lake City: Desert Book and FARMS, 1990), 2:197–237. Especially relevant to the treaty-covenant pattern found in 1Q22 Words of Moses is the fact that Tvedtnes demonstrates how passages from the book of Deuteronomy were used in both Jewish and Nephite celebrations of the Feast of Tabernacles.