1 Enoch 54

I looked and turned toward another part of the earth, and there I saw a deep valley with fire burning in it.

1And I looked and turned to another part of the earth, and saw there a deep valley with burning fire.

NoteEnoch is being shown around the cosmos by an angelic guide, and much of what he is shown is landscape: valleys, mountains, chasms. A burning valley as a place of punishment appears elsewhere in the book too. The image behind it is the Valley of Hinnom just outside Jerusalem, a ravine associated with burning, whose name in Greek became Gehenna, the standard word for the place of fiery punishment.

2They brought the kings and the mighty ones, and began to throw them into this deep valley.

2And they brought the kings and the mighty, and began to cast them into this deep valley.

Note"The kings and the mighty" is a fixed phrase running through this section of 1 Enoch, chapters 37 to 71, often extended to "the kings, the mighty, the exalted, and those who possess the land." It means rulers and wealthy landholders, the people with power over others, and it is used as a single group throughout, not as two separate classes.

3There my eyes saw how they were making the tools they would use: iron chains so heavy that no one could weigh them.

3And there mine eyes saw how they made these their instruments, iron chains of immeasurable weight.

Note"Instruments" in Charles's English means tools or implements, nothing to do with music. The point is that Enoch watches the chains actually being manufactured; the equipment of the punishment is being forged in front of him. Who "they" are is left unstated in the text, as is whose instruments these are.

4So I asked the angel of peace who was walking with me, "Who are these chains being made for?"

4And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: ‘For whom are these chains being prepared?’

NoteThe "angel of peace" is Enoch's recurring guide and interpreter in this part of the book. The name describes his role rather than identifying him: he is the angel who accompanies Enoch and answers his questions, and the same figure turns up repeatedly in these visions.

5He said to me, "These are being made ready for the hosts of Azâzêl, so that they may take them and throw them into the pit of complete condemnation, and they will cover their jaws with rough stones, just as the Lord of Spirits commanded.

5And he said unto me: ‘These are being prepared for the hosts of Azâzêl, so that they may take them and cast them into the abyss of complete condemnation, and they shall cover their jaws with rough stones as the Lord of Spirits commanded.

NoteAzâzêl is one of the leaders of the fallen angels, the Watchers, in the earlier part of 1 Enoch. There he teaches humans to make weapons and armor and to use cosmetics and jewelry, and is blamed for the corruption that followed. His "hosts" are his followers. What is described here, chains, a pit, rough stones laid over him, closely repeats his earlier punishment in chapter 10, where he is bound and cast into a hole in the desert and covered with jagged rocks. "The Lord of Spirits" is this section's usual title for God, used far more often than any other name.

6And Michael, and Gabriel, and Raphael, and Phanuel will seize them on that great day, and on that day they will throw them into the burning furnace, so that the Lord of Spirits may pay them back for the wrong they did in becoming subject to Satan and in leading astray those who live on the earth."

6And Michael, and Gabriel, and Raphael, and Phanuel shall take hold of them on that great day, and cast them on that day into the burning furnace, that the Lord of Spirits may take vengeance on them for their unrighteousness in becoming subject to Satan and leading astray those who dwell on the earth.’

NoteMichael, Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel are the four chief angels of this part of 1 Enoch. Elsewhere in the book the fourth is Uriel; in these chapters Phanuel takes that place. "Satan" here is a title as much as a name: in 1 Enoch the word often appears in the plural, "the satans," meaning a class of accusing and tempting spirits, so becoming "subject to Satan" means having gone over to that side.

7And in those days punishment will come from the Lord of Spirits, and he will open all the storerooms of water that are above the heavens, and the springs that are under the earth.

7And in those days shall punishment come from the Lord of Spirits, and He will open all the chambers of waters which are above the heavens, and of the fountains which are beneath the earth.

NoteThis reflects the physical picture of the world assumed throughout ancient Near Eastern writing: the sky is a solid vault holding back an ocean above it, and there is another body of water under the ground that feeds springs. Opening both at once is what produced Noah's flood, described in Genesis 7 as the fountains of the deep bursting open and the windows of heaven being opened. From this verse to the start of chapter 55 the subject shifts abruptly from the judgment of the angels to the flood, and many scholars think a fragment of separate Noah material has been inserted here.

8And all the waters will be joined together with the waters. The water that is above the heavens is the male, and the water that is beneath the earth is the female.

8And all the waters shall be joined with the waters: that which is above the heavens is the masculine, and the water which is beneath the earth is the feminine.

NoteThe waters above and below are being described as a couple coming together, and the language of male and female is grammatical and reproductive at once. A similar tradition of "male waters" and "female waters" appears in later Jewish writings, where rain from above and water welling up from below are said to meet and mingle.

9And they will destroy all who live on the earth and those who live under the ends of the sky.

9And they shall destroy all who dwell on the earth and those who dwell under the ends of the heaven.

Note"Those who dwell under the ends of the heaven" is an idiom for people living at the far edges of the world, where the dome of the sky was pictured as meeting the earth. It means everyone, including the remotest populations, not a separate group living somewhere underneath.

10And when they have recognized the wrong they have done on the earth, then they will perish by these waters."

10And when they have recognized their unrighteousness which they have wrought on the earth, then by these shall they perish.’

Note"By these shall they perish" is genuinely unclear in the original. "These" most naturally refers back to the waters of the previous verses, but it can also be read as pointing to the chains and the punishments described earlier in the chapter. It is likewise uncertain where the angel's speech ends, since the closing quotation mark here is the translator's decision rather than something marked in the text.