1 Enoch 25

And he said to me: ‘Enoch, why do you ask me about the smell of the tree, and why do you want to learn the truth?’

1And he said unto me: ‘Enoch, why dost thou ask me regarding the fragrance of the tree, and why dost thou wish to learn the truth?’

NoteThe speaker is Enoch's angelic guide, identified in the previous chapter as Michael, who has been showing him a range of seven mountains at the ends of the earth. The tree is the sweet-smelling tree Enoch has just seen growing on the seventh mountain, and his question about it at the end of chapter 24 is what this chapter answers.

2Then I answered him and said: ‘I want to know about everything, but most of all about this tree.’

2Then I answered him saying: ‘I wish to know about everything, but especially about this tree.’

3And he answered and said: ‘This high mountain that you have seen, whose top is like the throne of God, is his throne. That is where the Holy Great One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit, when he comes down to visit the earth with goodness.

3And he answered saying: ‘This high mountain which thou hast seen, whose summit is like the throne of God, is His throne, where the Holy Great One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit, when He shall come down to visit the earth with goodness.

NoteIn the older sense used here, to "visit" a place is not to drop in on it but to come and deal with it, to inspect and to act. The verb can carry either punishment or blessing, which is why the text has to specify which is meant: "with goodness." The three titles piled up here, "the Holy Great One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King," are standing forms of address for God throughout 1 Enoch rather than three separate figures.

4And as for this sweet-smelling tree, no one who can die is allowed to touch it until the great judgment, when he will take revenge on everyone and bring everything to its final end forever. Then it will be given to the righteous and holy ones.

4And as for this fragrant tree no mortal is permitted to touch it till the great judgement, when He shall take vengeance on all and bring (everything) to its consummation for ever. It shall then be given to the righteous and holy.

Note"No mortal" translates a phrase meaning no one made of flesh, no one subject to death; the point is a class of being, not a rule about ritual cleanness. "The great judgement" is a fixed term in 1 Enoch for the single final reckoning at the end of the age, not for any ordinary court case. "Take vengeance" is judicial language in this period: it means carrying out a sentence that has been passed, closer to "exact the penalty" than to private revenge. "Consummation" means completion, the point at which a thing is finished off.

5Its fruit will be food for the chosen ones. It will be dug up and planted again in the holy place, at the house of the Lord, the Eternal King.

5Its fruit shall be for food to the elect: it shall be transplanted to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King.

Note"The elect" means the chosen ones, and in 1 Enoch it is a standard label for the righteous rather than a description of a selection process. "Transplanted" is ordinary gardening vocabulary: the tree is dug up whole and replanted elsewhere, in this case beside God's house.

6Then they will be full of joy and gladness, and they will go into the holy place. Its smell will be in their bones, and they will live a long life on earth, the kind of life your ancestors lived. And in their days no sorrow or sickness or pain or disaster will touch them.’

6Then shall they rejoice with joy and be glad, And into the holy place shall they enter; And its fragrance shall be in their bones, And they shall live a long life on earth, Such as thy fathers lived: And in their days shall no sorrow or plague Or torment or calamity touch them.’

Note"Its fragrance shall be in their bones" uses a Hebrew way of speaking in which the bones stand for a person's innermost frame, the core of the self; compare English "I felt it in my bones." The sense is that the scent soaks all the way through them. "Such as thy fathers lived" points to the enormous lifespans of Enoch's own ancestors in Genesis 5, where men are said to have lived eight and nine hundred years before the flood. "Plague" here means any affliction or illness, not specifically an epidemic.

7Then I blessed the God of Glory, the Eternal King, who has prepared such things for the righteous, and has created them, and has promised to give them to them.

7Then blessed I the God of Glory, the Eternal King, who hath prepared such things for the righteous, and hath created them and promised to give to them.