Chapter XIX.—The Tenets of the Esseni Continued.
With oaths, then, of this description, they bind those who come forward. If, however, any one may be condemned for any sin, he is expelled from the order; but one that has been thus excommunicated sometimes perishes by an awful death. For, inasmuch as he is bound by the oaths and rites of the sect, he is not able to partake of the food in use among other people. Those that are excommunicated, occasionally, therefore, utterly destroy the body through starvation. And so it is, that when it comes to the last the Essenes sometimes pity many of them who are at the point of dissolution, inasmuch as they deem a punishment even unto death, thus inflicted upon these culprits, a sufficient penalty.
[24] Τοιούτοις οὖν ὅρκοις δεσ(μεύο)υσι τ(οὺς) προσερχομένους. εἰ δέ τις ἐν ἁμαρτήματί τιν(ι) (μεγάλῳ ληφθ)ῇ, ἀποβάλλεται τοῦ δώματος, ὁ δὲ ἀποβληθεὶς δεινῷ μόρῳ ἔσθ' ὅτε διαφθείρεται. τοῖς γὰρ ὅρκοις καὶ τοῖς ἔθεσιν ἐνδεδεμένος, (οὐ)δὲ τῆς παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις τροφῆς δύναται μεταλ(α)μβάνειν. ἔσθ' ὅτε οὗν τὸ σῶμα λιμῷ δι(α)φθείρ(ο)υσιν: (ὅθ)εν ἐν ἐσχάτοις ποτὲ [ὄντας καὶ] (ἤδ)η ἐκλείποντας ἐλεοῦσι πολλούς, [τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων] αὐτῶν ἱκανὴν [τὴν] μέχρι θανάτου ἐπιτιμίαν ἡγούμενοι.