1 Enoch 83

And now, my son Methuselah, I will show you all the visions I have seen, telling them over to you one by one.

1And now, my son Methuselah, I will show thee all my visions which I have seen, recounting them before thee.

NoteThis chapter opens the third main section of 1 Enoch, usually called the Book of Dreams (chapters 83 to 90). The speaker throughout is Enoch, the ancestor of Genesis 5, and Methuselah is his son. The whole section is framed as a father handing on to his son a written record of what he has seen, which is why it is addressed to one person by name.

2I saw two visions before I took a wife, and the one was not at all like the other. I saw the first while I was learning to write. I saw the second before I took your mother, and it was a terrible vision.

2Two visions I saw before I took a wife, and the one was quite unlike the other: the first when I was learning to write: the second before I took thy mother, (when) I saw a terrible vision.

NoteTo 'take a wife' is the ordinary ancient way of saying to marry; 'before I took thy mother' means before he married Methuselah's mother. Both visions are therefore dated to before Methuselah existed, which is why they have to be told to him rather than remembered by him. Enoch 'learning to write' fits his role elsewhere in this book as a scribe who records what he is shown. Which of the two visions is the one told here is not clear: it is narrated first, but the word 'terrible' ties it to the second, and the long vision that begins at chapter 85 is the other one. Readers of the text have taken it both ways.

3And about these visions I prayed to the Lord. I had lain down in the house of my grandfather Mahalalel, and I saw in a vision how the sky collapsed and was carried away and fell to the earth.

3And regarding them I prayed to the Lord. I had laid me down in the house of my grandfather Mahalalel, (when) I saw in a vision how the heaven collapsed and was borne off and fell to the earth.

NoteMahalalel is Enoch's grandfather in the line of Genesis 5: Mahalalel, then Jared, then Enoch. Sleeping in an older relative's house, with the grandfather lying nearby, is normal in a household holding several generations. The sky in this vision is a solid vault fixed above the earth, as it is in Genesis 1. That is why it can 'collapse' and be 'borne off' and fall, like a structure giving way, rather than simply going dark.

4And when it fell to the earth, I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss. Mountains hung over mountains, hills sank down onto hills, and tall trees were torn off at their trunks, hurled down, and sunk in the abyss.

4And when it fell to the earth I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems, and hurled down and sunk in the abyss.

NoteThe 'abyss' is the great deep below the earth, imagined both as water and as a pit. The horror of the image is that the ground itself gives way, so that the most fixed things on the surface, mountains, hills and old trees, slide into the hole underneath: mountains end up hanging above other mountains and trees are snapped off at the trunk. Within this book the destruction foreseen here is the flood, which in the story has not yet happened.

5And right then a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up my voice to cry out loud, and said, 'The earth is destroyed.'

5And thereupon a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up (my voice) to cry aloud, and said: ‘The earth is destroyed.’

Note'A word fell into my mouth' describes speech arriving from outside the speaker rather than being chosen by him. The sleeper cries out words that are given to him, and the phrase is a standard way of marking a statement as prophetic rather than as the speaker's own comment.

6And my grandfather Mahalalel woke me as I lay near him, and said to me, 'Why do you cry out like this, my son, and why do you mourn so loudly?'

6And my grandfather Mahalalel waked me as I lay near him, and said unto me: ‘Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou make such lamentation?’

NoteLamentation is not quiet sadness but loud, formal wailing, the noise made over a death. Mahalalel is asking why his grandson is crying out in his sleep as though someone has died.

7And I told him the whole vision I had seen, and he said to me, 'You have seen a terrible thing, my son, and your dream-vision is a very serious one, about the secrets of all the sin of the earth: it must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction.

7And I recounted to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said unto me: ‘A terrible thing hast thou seen, my son, and of grave moment is thy dream-vision as to the secrets of all the sin of the earth: it must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction.

Note'Secrets' is a keyword in this book for knowledge that is hidden from people on earth and can only be shown, not worked out. Mahalalel's point is that the dream is not about one disaster but about what lies concealed behind all the wrongdoing on earth, and about where that is heading.

8And now, my son, get up and make your request to the Lord of glory, since you are one who believes, that a remnant may be left on the earth, and that he may not destroy the whole earth.

8And now, my son, arise and make petition to the Lord of glory, since thou art a believer, that a remnant may remain on the earth, and that He may not destroy the whole earth.

NoteA 'remnant' is the small group left alive after a disaster, from whom a people can start again; asking for a remnant is asking that the destruction stop short of everyone, not that it be called off. 'Since thou art a believer' translates a phrase closer to 'since you are faithful' or 'since you trust him': it points to Enoch's standing as someone whose prayer will be heard, not to his holding a set of opinions. 'Lord of glory' is one of this book's regular titles for God.

9My son, all this will come upon the earth from heaven, and there will be great destruction on the earth.'

9My son, from heaven all this will come upon the earth, and upon the earth there will be great destruction.

10After that I got up and prayed and begged and pleaded, and I wrote my prayer down for the generations of the world, and I will show everything to you, my son Methuselah.

10After that I arose and prayed and implored and besought, and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, and I will show everything to thee, my son Methuselah.

NoteThe prayer Enoch says he wrote down is given in the next chapter, chapter 84. Writing it 'for the generations of the world' presents the words the reader is holding as that very record, preserved and passed down through Methuselah.

11And when I had gone outside below and had seen the sky, and the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting in the west, and a few stars, and the whole earth, and everything as he had known it in the beginning, then I blessed the Lord of judgment and praised him highly, because he had made the sun come out from the windows of the east, and it climbed and rose over the face of the sky, and set out and kept traveling along the path shown to it.

11And when I had gone forth below and seen the heaven, and the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting in the west, and a few stars, and the whole earth, and everything as †He had known† it in the beginning, then I blessed the Lord of judgement and extolled Him because He had made the sun to go forth from the windows of the east, †and he ascended and rose on the face of the heaven, and set out and kept traversing the path shown unto him.

NoteEnoch goes outdoors at dawn: the sun is coming up, the moon is going down, and only 'a few stars' are left because the rest have already faded in the light. The 'windows of the east' belong to the picture of the sky set out earlier in this book (chapters 72 to 75), where the sun leaves and enters the sky through a fixed series of openings along its eastern and western rims, shifting from one opening to the next as the seasons turn, so that sunrise happens at a slightly different point through the year. Two stretches of this verse are damaged in the manuscripts, the words behind 'everything as he had known it in the beginning' and the closing description of the sun's course; the sense given here is the likeliest reading of a broken text, not a certain one. 'Lord of judgement' is another of this book's titles for God.