1 Enoch 67

In those days the word of God came to me, and he said to me: 'Noah, your lot has come up before me. It is a lot without blame, a lot of love and of doing what is right.

1And in those days the word of God came unto me, and He said unto me: ‘Noah, thy lot has come up before Me, a lot without blame, a lot of love and uprightness.

NoteThe 'me' speaking here is Noah, not Enoch. Chapters 65 to 68 are a block of flood material in which Noah speaks in the first person, set inside the book of Enoch. A lot was a marked stone or token shaken out of a container to settle a decision, so a person's lot was the share or portion assigned to him; 'thy lot has come up before Me' pictures Noah's token as the one that came out.

2Right now the angels are making a wooden building. When they have finished that work, I will place my hand on it and keep it safe, and the seed of life will come out from it. Things will change, so that the earth will not be left with no one living on it.

2And now the angels are making a wooden (building), and when they have completed that task I will place My hand upon it and preserve it, and there shall come forth from it the seed of life, and a change shall set in so that the earth will not remain without inhabitant.

NoteThe 'wooden (building)' is the ark. Charles put 'building' in brackets because the Ethiopic says only 'a wooden thing' and a noun has to be supplied. Placing a hand on something is an old idiom for taking it under protection. 'Seed' means offspring or descendants, and carries that sense throughout the chapter.

3I will make your seed secure before me forever and ever, and I will spread out far and wide those who live with you. It will not be fruitless on the face of the earth. It will be blessed and grow many on the earth in the name of the Lord.'

3And I will make fast thy seed before me for ever and ever, and I will spread abroad those who dwell with thee: it shall not be unfruitful on the face of the earth, but it shall be blessed and multiply on the earth in the name of the Lord.’

NoteFruitful and unfruitful are farming words used of people: to be fruitful is to have many children, to be unfruitful is to have none.

4And he will shut up those angels who have shown themselves unrighteous in that burning valley, the one my grandfather Enoch had shown me earlier, in the west among the mountains of gold and silver and iron and soft metal and tin.

4And He will imprison those angels, who have shown unrighteousness, in that burning valley which my grandfather Enoch had formerly shown to me in the west among the mountains of gold and silver and iron and soft metal and tin.

NoteThe angels 'who have shown unrighteousness' are the Watchers, the angels who in the opening chapters of this book came down, took human wives and taught forbidden crafts. The burning valley and the mountains of metal were shown to Enoch earlier in the book, at chapters 52 and 54, where mountains of gold, silver, iron, soft metal and tin melt like wax. 'Soft metal' is Charles's rendering of a term usually understood as lead or a similarly pliable metal. Enoch was strictly Noah's great-grandfather, Enoch to Methuselah to Lamech to Noah; 'grandfather' is used loosely here for ancestor.

5And I saw that valley, in which there was a great shaking, and a shaking of the waters.

5And I saw that valley in which there was a great convulsion and a convulsion of the waters.

Note'Convulsion' translates a word for violent heaving or churning. The picture is ground shaking and water boiling up, as at a volcanic spring.

6When all this happened, from that fiery melted metal, and from the shaking of it in that place, a smell of sulfur was produced. It was joined with those waters, and that valley of the angels who had led people astray burned underneath that land.

6And when all this took place, from that fiery molten metal and from the convulsion thereof in that place, there was produced a smell of sulphur, and it was connected with those waters, and that valley of the angels who had led astray (mankind) burned beneath that land.

NoteSulphur is the yellow mineral that older English Bibles call brimstone. Heated, it gives off a strong rotten-egg smell, and hot mineral springs commonly reek of it, which is why ancient writers took the smell as evidence of fire burning underground.

7Through its valleys go streams of fire, and there these angels are punished, the ones who had led astray those who live on the earth.

7And through its valleys proceed streams of fire, where these angels are punished who had led astray those who dwell upon the earth.

8But those waters in those days will serve the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who live on the earth, to heal the body, but to punish the spirit. Now their spirit is full of lust, so that they may be punished in their body. They have denied the Lord of Spirits, and they see their punishment every day, and still they do not believe in his name.

8But those waters shall in those days serve for the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, for the healing of the body, but for the punishment of the spirit; now their spirit is full of lust, that they may be punished in their body, for they have denied the Lord of Spirits and see their punishment daily, and yet believe not in His name.

Note'The kings and the mighty and the exalted' is a set phrase running all through this part of the book for the ruling and wealthy class. 'The Lord of Spirits' is the title this section uses for God almost everywhere instead of a name. The waters that heal the body are hot mineral springs: bathing in them was standard ancient medicine, and rulers traveled to them for cures. Herod the Great went to the hot springs of Callirrhoe near the Dead Sea during his final illness.

9And as much as the burning of their bodies grows severe, a matching change will take place in their spirit forever and ever. For before the Lord of Spirits no one will speak an empty word.

9And in proportion as the burning of their bodies becomes severe, a corresponding change shall take place in their spirit for ever and ever; for before the Lord of Spirits none shall utter an idle word.

NoteTo utter an idle word is to speak one that is empty, that comes to nothing. The line can be read two ways: that no one can speak carelessly or falsely in God's presence, or that nothing said there ever falls to the ground unfulfilled. The wording allows both.

10For the judgment will come upon them, because they believe in the lust of their body and deny the Spirit of the Lord.

10For the judgement shall come upon them, because they believe in the lust of their body and deny the Spirit of the Lord.

Note'Lust' in this translation is wider than sexual desire; it covers bodily craving and appetite of any kind, with the sexual sense included. 'The Spirit of the Lord' is unusual here, since this section otherwise says 'the Lord of Spirits', and many readers take it as a copyist's reversal of that same title.

11And those same waters will undergo a change in those days. When those angels are punished in these waters, these water springs will change their temperature, and when the angels go up, this water of the springs will change and become cold.

11And those same waters will undergo a change in those days; for when those angels are punished in these waters, these water-springs shall change their temperature, and when the angels ascend, this water of the springs shall change and become cold.

12And I heard Michael answering and saying: 'This judgment, the one the angels are judged with, is a testimony for the kings and the mighty who possess the earth.'

12And I heard Michael answering and saying: ‘This judgement wherewith the angels are judged is a testimony for the kings and the mighty who possess the earth.’

NoteMichael is one of the chief angels named earlier in this book, the one charged with binding the fallen angels. 'Testimony' here does not mean a statement given in court; it means something set on public display as proof and warning, evidence of what can happen to those who see it.

13Because these waters of judgment serve to heal the body of the kings and serve the lust of their body, they will not see and will not believe that those waters will change and become a fire that burns forever.

13Because these waters of judgement minister to the healing of the body of the kings and the lust of their body; therefore they will not see and will not believe that those waters will change and become a fire which burns for ever.