1 Enoch 8
What Happens in This Chapter
Azazel teaches people how to make weapons and armor, how to work metal, and how to make jewelry, eye paint, and dyes. Godlessness spreads, and people become corrupt in all their ways. Other named figures teach spells, the cutting of roots, the undoing of spells, astrology, the constellations, the clouds, the signs of the earth and sun, and the path of the moon. People die, and their cry rises to heaven.
Azazel taught people how to make swords, knives, shields, and armor for the chest. He showed them the metals in the ground and how to work them. He taught them to make bracelets and ornaments, and to use antimony and paint their eyelids to look beautiful. He taught them about every kind of costly stone and every kind of dye.
1And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals 〈of the earth〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.
Antimony is a dark mineral that was ground into powder and used as eye makeup.
2Great godlessness spread. People were sexually immoral, they were led off the right path, and they became corrupt in everything they did.
2And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.
3Semjaza taught spells and the cutting of roots. Armaros taught how to undo spells. Baraqijal taught astrology. Kokabel taught the constellations. Ezeqeel taught the knowledge of the clouds. Araqiel taught the signs of the earth, and Shamsiel the signs of the sun. Sariel taught the path of the moon.
3Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Êzêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, 〈Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun〉, and Sariêl the course of the moon.
Cutting roots means digging up plant roots to use them, often in medicine or magic. The names in brackets in some copies of this book mark words that are missing or damaged in the oldest manuscripts and have been supplied from other copies.
4And as people were dying, they cried out, and their cry went up to heaven . . .
4And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .
The dots at the end mark a place where the text breaks off. The sentence is not finished in the manuscripts.
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