1 Enoch 87

And again I watched as they began to stab each other with their horns and to eat each other, and the earth began to cry out loudly.

1And again I saw how they began to gore each other and to devour each other, and the earth began to cry aloud.

NoteThe dream continues without a break from the previous chapter, where stars fell out of heaven, took the form of bulls among the cattle, and fathered three kinds of huge animals: elephants, camels and donkeys. Those animals are the "they" here. In this vision the whole history of the world is told with animals standing for people, so goring and devouring is the picture-language for killing and violence among them. The earth crying out uses the idiom of Genesis, where the ground itself raises an outcry after a murder, as if bloodshed were a legal complaint the land lodges against those who spilled it.

2And I lifted my eyes toward heaven again, and I saw in the vision, and there came out from heaven beings who looked like white men. Four of them came out from that place, and three more came with them.

2And I raised mine eyes again to heaven, and I saw in the vision, and behold there came forth from heaven beings who were like white men: and four went forth from that place and three with them.

Note"White men" is color coding inside the vision, not a statement about anyone's skin or ancestry. White marks a figure throughout this dream as pure and belonging to heaven. Human shape carries meaning too: since ordinary people appear in this vision as animals, a figure in human form is by that very fact not a human being but a heavenly one. Readers of 1 Enoch would have connected the first four with the four holy ones named earlier in the book, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Sariel (Uriel in some copies), who bring the outcry of the earth before God.

3And those three who had come out last took hold of my hand and lifted me up, away from the people living on the earth, and raised me to a high place. There they showed me a tower that stood far above the earth, and all the hills were lower than it.

3And those three that had last come forth grasped me by my hand and took me up, away from the generations of the earth, and raised me up to a lofty place, and showed me a tower raised high above the earth, and all the hills were lower.

NoteBeing seized by the hand, carried off the earth and set on a height is a standard move in ancient vision reports: the seer is lifted out of ordinary life to a vantage point from which the rest of history can be watched. "Tower" in this dream means a built structure of importance; later in the same vision a house and a tower stand for the city of Jerusalem and its temple. Here the tower is simply shown to Enoch, towering over every hill, before the events he is told to watch begin.

4And one of them said to me: 'Stay here until you have seen everything that happens to those elephants, camels, and donkeys, and to the stars and the oxen, and to all of them.'

4And one said unto me: ‘Remain here till thou seest everything that befalls those elephants, camels, and asses, and the stars and the oxen, and all of them.’

NoteThis verse is where the code of the dream is most compressed. The oxen, or bulls, are human beings descended from Adam, who appears in chapter 85 as a white bull. The stars are the heavenly beings who left their assigned place and came down to earth in chapter 86. The elephants, camels and donkeys are the three kinds of giant offspring born from those beings and human women; the same three kinds are listed in the Book of Watchers earlier in 1 Enoch. So the instruction is to stay put and watch what happens next to each of these groups in turn.