The Sword of the Messiah 43 execution of the messiah’s enemies by the jwr of his lips can be directly related or attributed to God’s support of the messiah with the Spirit of might. 4Q534 col 1,8-10; 2,7-16 probably alludes to Isaiah 11 and 42 when it depicts God’s Chosen One filled with wisdom and knowledge who will cause destruction by the jwr of his breath (25). The picture that emerges from these texts is that of a Spirit- empowered Davidic messiah rooted in Isaiah 11 (and 42) who will sift the righteous and the wicked through the jwr of his mouth. The issue then is the nature of what exactly comes out of the messiah’s mouth, indicated by wytpc jwr in Isa 11,4. The word hpc can mean “lip” but also “speech”, and the semantic domain of jwr contains both “breath” and “Spirit”, so that the expression wytpc jwr may simply mean “the breath of his lips” but it can also refer to the messiah’s Spirit-imbued word. There are good reasons to assume that probably both references are in view. First, the wisdom and knowledge provided by the Spirit in Isa 11,2 probably form the basis for the messiah’s Spirit-imbued speech in Isa 11,4. Moreover, the powerful effect of the messiah’s words in Isa 11,4 should probably also be attributed to this Spirit of might of Isa 11,2. Second, the LXX translation of Isa 11,4 explicitly states that words come out of the messiah’s mouth (oJ lovgo" tou' stovmato" aujtou'), and the intended parallelism with pneu'ma ceilevwn suggests that these words are Spirit-infused. Hence, we may conclude that the means of the messiah’s sifting the righteous and the wicked is his Spirit-imbued word. Other writings rather highlight a messiah with a teaching role. 4Q175 5-13 speaks both of the eschatological Prophet who will bring God’s revelatory teaching (with negative consequences for those who reject it) and of a royal-political messiah who will execute judgment, and lines 14-20 present the idea of a priestly messiah who will teach the law. The teaching function implicit in the epithet “the Interpreter/Teacher of the law” in CD 7,18 and 4Q174 f1 col 1,11 probably refers to the same priestly messianic figure (26). 4Q541 f7 4- (25) É. Puech interprets the entire expression yhwmçn jwr in col 1,10; 2,7 as “his Spirit” (Qumrân Grotte 4.XXII. Textes araméens première partie 4Q529-549 [DJD 31; Oxford 2001] 134, 143, 146). (26) Cf. M.A. KNIBB, The Qumran Community (Cambridge 1987) 264-266; COLLINS, Scepter, 114-115. P.R. Davies argues that the Damascus community expected only a single teacher-messiah and not a dual or Davidic messiahship (“Judaisms in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Case of the Messiah”, The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Historical Context [eds. T.H. LIM et al.] [Edinburgh 2000] 219- 232). However, the diarchic view remains widely held.