Aharon ShemeshThese verses have been discussed by scholars from several different angles.^15
For our purposes I wish to concentrate on the last two verses. The angel of
the presence tells Moses that God chose the seed of Jacob from all the na
tions so that "they might keep the Sabbath together with (TIT' niTl^1 ?! 13057)
us. So that their deeds (the keeping of the Sabbath) will go up as sweet
odour, which is acceptable before him all the days (H^SP IT 11X8 ntt>5772l
D'a'n "73 l'JB^1? nST "IB7K mm m)." The last words of this verse corre
spond almost verbatim to line 9 in 4Q265 frg. 7: "Pleasing and a sweet odor
to atone for the l[a]nd (]*» p[X]n "757 "IDa^1? mm mi im)." The
meaning of this phrase in both, in 4Q265 and in its origin in lQS, is that the
yahad has a special status as the chosen people, so that its members' righ
teous deeds have the power to atone for the land. The author of 4Q265 chose
to integrate this short paragraph from lQS (or maybe a variant of it) in this
specific location at the heart of frg. 7 in order, I suggest, to emphasize and
strengthen the sect's historical-religious perception of itself as the true Israel
and as being the present-day "seed of Jacob." In so doing, 4Q265 presents the
paragraph from lQS as an exegetical implementation of Jubilees. Note also
the appearance of the word yahad (TIT) at the beginning of the verse, just as
in lines 7-8 of our fragment. It is not far-fetched to assume that this linguis
tic similarity stimulates him to do so. Actually in its current context at the
middle of frg. 7 of 4Q265, the citation from lQS functions as a rewriting of
Jubilees. While in Jubilees the chosen people are the "seed of Jacob," in
4Q265 it is the yahad and its members.^16
- On Jacob as God's firstborn son, see J. L. Kugel, "4Q369 'Prayer of Enosh' and An
cient Biblical Interpretation," DSD 5 (1998): 119-48. The association of the election of Israel
with the Sabbath finds its expression in some other compositions from Qumran. See, for ex
ample, 4Q503 (daily prayers), 24-25 (DJD 7 [Oxford: Clarendon, 1982], 105-36). Interestingly,
this idea is also the focus of one of the relatively late versions of the Shabbat prayer, used in
the traditional Jewish prayer book for the Shabbat Morning Prayer (Shacharit). The text re
lates as follows: "And You, Lord our God, did not give it (the Shabbat) to the nations of the
world, nor did You, our King, grant it as a heritage to idol-worshippers, nor can
uncircumcised participate in its rest — for You have given it in love to Your people Israel, to
the descendents of Jacob whom You have chosen." For the dating and history of this text, see
N. Wieder, "The Controversy about the Liturgical Composition 'Yismach Moshe' — Oppo
sition and Defense," in Studies in Aggadah, Targum, and Jewish Liturgy in Memory of Joseph
Heinemann, ed. E. Fleischer and Y. Patohovski (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1981), 75-99. - The perception of the yahad as the true elected Israel is manifested throughout
the scrolls. See iQHa, 7,26-27; rQS, 4,22. See also D. Dimant, "Qumran Sectarian Literature,"
in Jewish Writing of the Second Temple Period, ed. M. E. Stone (Philadelphia: Assen, 1984),
536-38.