1 Enoch 103

So now I swear to you, the righteous, by the glory of the One who is great and honored and

1Now, therefore, I swear to you, the righteous, by the glory of the Great and Honoured and

NoteThe speaker throughout these chapters is Enoch, the ancient figure of Genesis 5, presented here as passing on what he has been shown to readers of much later generations. "I swear to you, the righteous" means "I swear to you who are righteous": they are the people being addressed, not people on whose behalf the oath is made. Swearing by the glory or the greatness of God was the strongest oath available, since an oath was always sworn by something greater than the one swearing it.

2mighty in his rule. By his greatness I swear to you. I know a secret. I have read the tablets of heaven, and I have seen the holy books, and I have found written and marked down in them about them:

2Mighty One in dominion, and by His greatness I swear to you. I know a mystery And have read the heavenly tablets, And have seen the holy books, And have found written therein and inscribed regarding them:

NoteThe tablets of heaven are a recurring idea in this book and in other Jewish writing of the period: a permanent record kept in heaven on which what has been decided, and what people have done, is already written down. To have read them is to know an outcome that has not yet arrived on earth. The "secret", which Charles translates "a mystery", is not something puzzling but something hidden that has now been disclosed to one person and is being passed on.

3that all goodness and joy and glory are prepared for them, and written down for the spirits of those who have died in righteousness. Much good will be given to you in return for your hard work, and your share is far greater than the share of the living.

3That all goodness and joy and glory are prepared for them, And written down for the spirits of those who have died in righteousness, And that manifold good shall be given to you in recompense for your labours, And that your lot is abundantly beyond the lot of the living.

Note"Your share", Charles's "your lot", translates a word that first meant the piece of land assigned to a family by the casting of lots, and then came to mean whatever portion of life or destiny falls to a person. The comparison is between the portion belonging to the righteous who have died and the portion belonging to those still alive.

4The spirits of you who have died in righteousness will live and rejoice. Their spirits will not be destroyed, and the memory of them will not be lost from before the face of the Great One, through all the generations of the world. So do not fear their insults any longer.

4And the spirits of you who have died in righteousness shall live and rejoice, And their spirits shall not perish, nor their memorial from before the face of the Great One Unto all the generations of the world: wherefore no longer fear their contumely.

Note"Their insults" refers to the sinners, whose mocking speech was quoted in the previous chapter and is quoted again in verses 5 and 6. Charles's word is "contumely", meaning insulting and contemptuous abuse. For a person's memory not to be lost "from before the face" of God means that the record of that person continues to stand rather than being wiped out, which is how the loss of a name and a line of descendants was ordinarily described.

5Trouble is coming to you, sinners, when you have died, if you die in the abundance of your sins, and those who are like you say about you: "The sinners are blessed. They have seen out all their days.

5Woe to you, ye sinners, when ye have died, If ye die in the wealth of your sins, And those who are like you say regarding you: “Blessed are the sinners: they have seen all their days.

Note"Trouble is coming to you" renders the formula Charles translates "Woe to you", a fixed opening for the formal announcement of a coming disaster, used by the Hebrew prophets. This whole section of the book is built as a long series of such woes. To "see out all their days", Charles's "they have seen all their days", is an idiom for living out a full lifespan, ordinarily taken as a sign of favor. Dying "in the abundance of your sins", Charles's "in the wealth of your sins", measures the sins as a hoard, like the riches these people died holding.

6And now they have died in good times and in riches. In their lives they did not see hardship or killing. They died with honor, and judgment was not carried out on them while they lived."

6And now they have died in prosperity and in wealth, And have not seen tribulation or murder in their life; And they have died in honour, And judgement has not been executed on them during their life.”

NoteTo die "in honour" means to die with wealth, standing and a proper burial intact, none of it stripped away first. "Judgment was not carried out on them while they lived" assumes the older expectation that wrongdoing is punished within a person's own lifetime, so that a comfortable death and an untroubled life looked like evidence that nothing was owed.

7Know this: their souls will be made to go down into Sheol, and they will be miserable in their great suffering.

7Know ye, that their souls will be made to descend into Sheol And they shall be wretched in their great tribulation.

NoteSheol is the Hebrew name for the underworld, the place below to which the dead were understood to go. In the older Hebrew writings it is a single shadowy destination holding everyone alike. In this book it has been divided into separate compartments, described in chapter 22, so that the righteous and the wicked are kept apart there while they wait for judgment. The word is left untranslated because the English words "hell" and "the grave" each carry only a part of its sense.

8And your spirits will go into darkness and chains and a burning flame, where the judgment is harsh. And the great judgment will be for all the generations of the world. Trouble is coming to you, for you will have no peace.

8And into darkness and chains and a burning flame where there is grievous judgement shall your spirits enter; And the great judgement shall be for all the generations of the world. Woe to you, for ye shall have no peace.

Note"You will have no peace" is a refrain running through this part of the book, closing one woe after another. It is the exact reversal of the ordinary greeting and farewell, in which peace, meaning safety and well being and everything going right, is wished on a person.

9Do not say about the righteous and good people who are alive: "In our days of trouble we worked hard and went through every kind of hardship, and we met much evil and were worn away, and we became few, and our spirit became small.

9Say not in regard to the righteous and good who are in life: “In our troubled days we have toiled laboriously and experienced every trouble, And met with much evil and been consumed, And have become few and our spirit small.

NoteWhat follows, from here to the end of the chapter, is a first person lament about a life of hard labor, poverty and violence. It is introduced as something the reader is told not to say, so the words are quoted in order to be answered rather than agreed with. The text is awkward at this point and the speaker is disputed: the complaint may be the words of the righteous themselves, or words put in their mouths by others. The rendering keeps the awkwardness instead of smoothing it out.

10We were destroyed, and we found no one to help us, not even with a word. We were tortured and destroyed, and we did not hope to see life from one day to the next.

10And we have been destroyed and have not found any to help us even with a word: We have been tortured and destroyed, and not hoped to see life from day to day.

11We hoped to be the head, and we became the tail. We worked hard and got no satisfaction from our work. We became food for the sinners and the lawless, and they laid their yoke heavily on us.

11We hoped to be the head and have become the tail: We have toiled laboriously and had no satisfaction in our toil; And we have become the food of the sinners and the unrighteous, And they have laid their yoke heavily upon us.

Note"We hoped to be the head, and we became the tail" is a set phrase taken from Deuteronomy 28, where being the head means leading and giving the orders and being the tail means being at the bottom and taking them. A yoke is the wooden bar fastened across the necks of a pair of oxen to harness them to a plow or cart; laid on people, it is the standard image for forced labor, crushing taxation and subjection to a master. "We became food for the sinners" uses the common picture of being eaten, that is, of having one's land, work and livelihood consumed by someone more powerful.

12Those who hated us and struck us ruled over us. To those who hated us we bowed our necks, but they showed us no pity.

12They have had dominion over us that hated us† and smote us; And to those that hated us† we have bowed our necks But they pitied us not.

NoteBowing the neck is the movement of an animal accepting the yoke, and so stands for a person submitting to a master. Charles marks two phrases in this verse as uncertain, because the Ethiopic manuscripts are damaged or disagree at that point.

13We wanted to get away from them, so that we might escape and be at rest, but we found no place to run to where we would be safe from them.

13We desired to get away from them that we might escape and be at rest, But found no place whereunto we should flee and be safe from them.

14And we complained to the rulers in our suffering, and cried out against those who were devouring us, but they paid no attention to our cries and would not listen to our voice.

14And we complained to the rulers in our tribulation, And cried out against those who devoured us, But they did not attend to our cries And would not hearken to our voice.

NoteThe rulers here are human authorities, the local officials and magistrates before whom a wronged person would lay a complaint and expect a hearing. The charge in these verses is that the ordinary machinery of justice was appealed to and did nothing. "Those who were devouring us" continues the image of the poor being eaten up by the powerful.

15And they helped the ones who robbed us and devoured us and made us few, and they covered up the wrong that was done to us. They did not take off us the yoke of those who devoured us and scattered us and murdered us, and they covered up the murder, and did not remember that they had lifted up their hands against us.

15And they helped those who robbed us and devoured us and those who made us few; and they concealed their oppression, and they did not remove from us the yoke of those that devoured us and dispersed us and murdered us, and they concealed their murder, and remembered not that they had lifted up their hands against us.

NoteTo lift up the hand against someone is an idiom for doing them violence. "They covered up" describes the concealing of a crime so that no case can be brought, the officials shielding the offenders rather than the victims. "Made us few" and "scattered us" are the standard terms for a population reduced by killing and driven off its land.