1 Enoch 5

Look at how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and produce fruit. So pay attention and learn about all his works, and see that the one who lives forever is the one who made them this way.

1Observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed and know with regard to all His works, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so.

NoteThis continues an argument that has been running since chapter 2, which walked through the sun, the moon, the stars, the seasons and the sea, all keeping exactly to the pattern set for them. "Works" in "all His works" means the things God made, the created world itself, not deeds he performs on someone's behalf.

2And all his works keep going on like this, year after year, forever, and so does every task they carry out for him. Their tasks do not change. Whatever God has ordered is what gets done.

2And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and their tasks change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done.

NoteA "task" here is the fixed job each created thing is given: the tree leafing in spring, the star rising at its hour. The word is the ordinary one for work assigned to a servant, so the created things are pictured as a staff with set duties they are not free to alter.

3And look at how the sea and the rivers do the same. They carry out their tasks and do not change them away from what he has commanded.

3And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and change not their tasks from His commandments.

NoteThe sea staying inside the limits set for it was a standard image in Jewish writing for a created thing obeying a fixed command. Compare Job 38:8-11 and Jeremiah 5:22, where God sets the sand as a boundary the water cannot pass.

4But you, you have not held steady, and you have not done what the Lord commanded. Instead you have turned away and spoken proud, harsh words with your unclean mouths against his greatness. You hard-hearted people, you will find no peace.

4But ye—ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord, But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words With your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace.

Note"Ye shall find no peace" is a set formula in 1 Enoch, repeated as a standing verdict on the wicked throughout the book; it echoes Isaiah 48:22 and 57:21. "Peace" carries the full Hebrew sense of shalom: safety, health, prosperity and wholeness, not merely the absence of fighting. "Impure mouths" uses the vocabulary of ritual uncleanness, the condition that barred a person from approaching holy things. In the original the pronoun is doubled for emphasis at the start of the verse, marking the swing from nature, which keeps its orders, to the people addressed, who do not.

5So you will curse your own days, and the years of your life will come to nothing, and the years of your ruin will be multiplied under a curse that never ends, and you will find no mercy.

5Therefore shall ye execrate your days, And the years of your life shall perish, And the years of your destruction shall be multiplied in eternal execration, And ye shall find no mercy. 6a. In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous, b. And by you shall all who curse, curse, And all the sinners and godless shall imprecate by you, 7c. And for you the godless there shall be a curse. 6d. And all the . . . shall rejoice, e. And there shall be forgiveness of sins, f. And every mercy and peace and forbearance: g. There shall be salvation unto them, a goodly light. i. And for all of you sinners there shall be no salvation, j. But on you all shall abide a curse. 7a. But for the elect there shall be light and joy and peace, b. And they shall inherit the earth.

NoteCursing your own days is the idiom of Job 3, where Job curses the day he was born. Note also that the numbering jumps from 5 to 8. The material traditionally numbered 5:6 and 5:7 survives in a tangled order in the Ethiopic manuscripts, and Charles printed it as lettered fragments (6a, 6b, then 7c, then 6d and so on) to show the sequence he thought the lines originally had.

8And then wisdom will be given to the chosen ones. They will all live and will never sin again, not by godless living and not by pride. Those who are wise will be humble.

8And then there shall be bestowed upon the elect wisdom, And they shall all live and never again sin, Either through ungodliness or through pride: But they who are wise shall be humble.

Note"The elect," given here as "the chosen ones," is one of this book's regular labels for the group it expects to be vindicated, used interchangeably with "the righteous" and "the holy." It is a standing name for a community, not a description of a state of mind.

9And they will not break the commands again, and they will not sin any day of their lives, and they will not die from (God's) anger or fury. Instead they will live out the full number of their days. Their lives will grow in peace, and the years of their joy will be multiplied, in gladness and peace that never end, all the days of their life.

9And they shall not again transgress, Nor shall they sin all the days of their life, Nor shall they die of (the divine) anger or wrath, But they shall complete the number of the days of their life. And their lives shall be increased in peace, And the years of their joy shall be multiplied, In eternal gladness and peace, All the days of their life.

NoteThe parentheses around "God's" mark words the translator supplied: the Ethiopic says only "anger" and "wrath," without naming whose, and Charles added the identification. "They shall complete the number of the days of their life" is an idiom for living out the whole span allotted to a person and dying of age, as opposed to being cut off early, which is what the previous clause about anger describes.