1 Enoch 39

In those days chosen and holy children will come down from the high heaven, and their offspring will become one with the children of men.

1And it †shall come to pass in those days that elect and holy children †will descend from the high heaven, and their seed† will become one with the children of men.

NoteThe obelisks (†) in Charles's translation mark words he judged to be corrupt or uncertain in the Ethiopic manuscripts, so the sense of this verse is genuinely unsettled: it can be read as a promise that holy offspring will come down and mingle with humanity, or as an echo of the descent of the Watchers earlier in the book, where angelic beings came down and fathered children by human women with disastrous results. "The children of men" is a Semitic way of saying human beings in general, not male children.

2In those days Enoch received books of burning zeal and of anger, and books of unrest and of driving out. And mercy will not be given to them, says the Lord of Spirits.

2And in those days Enoch received books of zeal and wrath, and books of disquiet and expulsion. And mercy shall not be accorded to them, saith the Lord of Spirits.

Note"Books of zeal and wrath" belong to a picture running through Enoch of heavenly record books in which deeds and verdicts are written down in advance. "Zeal" here carries its older sense of burning, jealous indignation rather than enthusiasm, and "expulsion" means being driven out from a place or a people. Who "them" refers to is left unspecified in the text. "The Lord of Spirits" is the standard title for God through chapters 37 to 71 of Enoch, roughly equivalent to "Lord of Hosts" in the Hebrew scriptures; the spirits are the angelic beings that surround him.

3In those days a whirlwind lifted me up away from the earth and set me down at the far end of the heavens.

3And in those days a whirlwind carried me off from the earth, And set me down at the end of the heavens.

NoteBeing carried off by a whirlwind is the traditional language for a body taken up out of the world alive, as Elijah is in 2 Kings 2. "The end of the heavens" reflects the ancient picture of the sky as a structure with edges and boundaries that a traveler could actually reach.

4There I saw another vision: the places where the holy live, and the places where the righteous rest.

4And there I saw another vision, the dwelling-places of the holy, And the resting-places of the righteous.

5Here my eyes saw their homes among his righteous angels, and their resting places among the holy ones. They made requests and spoke on behalf of others and prayed for the children of men. Righteousness flowed in front of them like water, and mercy like dew on the ground. That is how it is among them forever and ever.

5Here mine eyes saw their dwellings with His righteous angels, And their resting-places with the holy. And they petitioned and interceded and prayed for the children of men, And righteousness flowed before them as water, And mercy like dew upon the earth: Thus it is amongst them for ever and ever. 6a. And in that place mine eyes saw the Elect One of righteousness and of faith, 7a. And I saw his dwelling-place under the wings of the Lord of Spirits. 6b. And righteousness shall prevail in his days, And the righteous and elect shall be without number before Him for ever and ever. 7b. And all the righteous and elect before Him shall be †strong† as fiery lights, And their mouth shall be full of blessing, And their lips extol the name of the Lord of Spirits, And righteousness before Him shall never fail, And uprightness shall never fail before Him.

NoteDew was the one dependable moisture in a dry-summer climate, arriving silently overnight without storm or effort, so "mercy like dew" pictures something steady and quiet rather than sudden. "Interceded" means pleaded with God on someone else's behalf, the work of an advocate. The numbering jumps from 5 to 8 because Charles judged the lines numbered 6 and 7 to have fallen out of order in the manuscripts and rearranged them as 6a, 7a, 6b, 7b.

8I wanted to live there, and my spirit longed for that dwelling place. My share has been there all along, for it was settled that way about me in the presence of the Lord of Spirits.

8There I wished to dwell, And my spirit longed for that dwelling-place: And there heretofore hath been my portion, For so has it been established concerning me before the Lord of Spirits.

NoteA "portion" is an allotted share, the word used for the piece of land a family received as its inheritance. Saying his portion has been there "heretofore", that is, all along, makes the claim that the place was assigned to him before he ever saw it.

9In those days I praised and lifted high the name of the Lord of Spirits with blessings and praises, because he has appointed me for blessing and glory, as it pleased the Lord of Spirits.

9In those days I praised and extolled the name of the Lord of Spirits with blessings and praises, because He hath destined me for blessing and glory according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits.

Note"Good pleasure" is an old English rendering of a word meaning free choice or settled decision. It says the appointment was God's own to make, not that it amused him.

10For a long time my eyes looked at that place, and I blessed him and praised him, saying: 'Blessed is he, and may he be blessed from the beginning and forever.

10For a long time my eyes regarded that place, and I blessed Him and praised Him, saying: ‘Blessed is He, and may He be blessed from the beginning and for evermore.

11And before him there is no stopping. He knows, from before the world was made, what lasts forever and what will come from one generation to the next.

11And before Him there is no ceasing. He knows before the world was created what is for ever and what will be from generation unto generation.

Note"Before Him there is no ceasing" is ambiguous in the Ethiopic and can be read two ways: that the praise in his presence never stops, or that God himself never rests from his work. Charles's wording preserves the ambiguity rather than settling it.

12Those who never sleep bless You. They stand before Your glory and bless and praise and lift high Your name, saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Spirits. He fills the earth with spirits."'

12Those who sleep not bless Thee: they stand before Thy glory and bless, praise, and extol, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Spirits: He filleth the earth with spirits.”’

Note"Those who sleep not" are a class of angels defined by unbroken wakefulness, keeping up praise without pause. The term is related to the Aramaic word for "watchers" or "wakeful ones" used elsewhere in Enoch for the angels who fell, but here it describes the loyal ones. The threefold "Holy, holy, holy" is the cry of the seraphim in Isaiah 6:3, where the line ends "the whole earth is full of his glory"; Enoch's version substitutes spirits for glory.

13And here my eyes saw all those who never sleep. They stand before him and bless and say: 'Blessed are You, and blessed be the name of the Lord forever and ever.'

13And here my eyes saw all those who sleep not: they stand before Him and bless and say: ‘Blessed be Thou, and blessed be the name of the Lord for ever and ever.’

NoteTo "bless" God does not mean to confer a benefit on him. It means to acknowledge and declare him as the source of good, the same verb used when a person is blessed, turned around and aimed upward.

14And my face was changed, for I could no longer look.

14And my face was changed; for I could no longer behold.

NoteA face changed by a vision is a stock feature of these accounts: the visionary's appearance is altered by what he has seen, as Moses' face shines in Exodus 34. "I could no longer behold" is open in the text between two senses: that he could not bear to keep looking, or that after the change he was no longer able to see at all.