(1QM) טור יט במגילת המלחמה

Column 19 of the War Scroll (1QM) has neither a continuous physical connection to any of the sheets of the War Scroll, nor a logical connection to the preceding text in Column 18 in terms of content. The extant text contains two literary units: a portion of the last part of a prayer (lines1-8), and a prose text describing the warriors the day after victory (lines 9-14). Comparative study has shown that both of these literary units appear with the same structure and order in 4Q492 1 and in column 19. In addition, as found there, the texts match entirely in content, wording, vocabulary, and spelling. Thus, it is possible to determine that both column 19 and 4Q492 1 are copies of the same document and that this document is not a copy of the War Scroll, as all it shares with the War Scroll is the prayer section. Comparative study has shown, moreover, that the prayer section in Column 19, lines 1-8 and in manuscript 4Q492 1 represents one version of the prayer, whereas a second version of the same prayer can be found in War Scroll 12, lines 7-16, with some expansions and minor orthographical and lexical differences. It has also been demonstrated that war literature contains routine prayers, which the authors adapted to their needs. Accordingly, we cannot automatically assume that the text in the War Scroll and the text found in Column 19 and 4Q492 1 represent two versions or two editions of a single text, if all they have in common is the prayer section that appears in two versions. That is, we can conclude that column 19 and manuscript 4Q492 1 represent one document, and that this is not a copy of the War Scroll. This forms the basis for my conclusion that column 19 does not belong to the sequence of columns of the War Scroll.