1 Enoch 92

This is the book written by Enoch. Enoch wrote out this whole teaching of wisdom, a teaching praised by everyone and a judge of all the earth, for all my children who will live on the earth, and for the generations to come who will live uprightly and in peace.

1The book written by Enoch—Enoch indeed wrote this complete doctrine of wisdom, (which is) praised of all men and a judge of all the earth for all my children who shall dwell on the earth. And for the future generations who shall observe uprightness and peace.

NoteEnoch is the figure of Genesis 5, sixth in descent from Adam through Seth, of whom the text says only that he "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." A large body of later Jewish writing, of which this book is the chief survivor, was composed in his name and presented as things he saw and wrote down before the flood. Chapter 92 opens the last major section of the book, usually called the Epistle of Enoch, and this verse is its title heading. Note how the sentence begins about Enoch in the third person and then slides into his own voice with "my children": the heading is the editor's, the address is Enoch's. The phrase "a judge of all the earth" applied to a written teaching is awkward in the Ethiopic and the manuscripts differ here; Charles's parentheses, as in "(which is)", mark words he supplied to make English sense of a compressed original, not words present in the manuscripts.

2Do not let your spirit be troubled because of the times you live in, for the Holy and Great One has set the days for everything.

2Let not your spirit be troubled on account of the times; For the Holy and Great One has appointed days for all things.

Note"The times" here is not time in general but the present stretch of history the readers are living through, understood as a bad age that will end. The reassurance is about scheduling: the days have already been fixed, so the delay is not disorder.

3And the righteous one will rise from sleep. He will rise and walk on the paths of righteousness, and his whole road and his whole way of living will be in goodness and kindness that last forever.

3And the righteous one shall arise from sleep, Shall arise and walk in the paths of righteousness, And all his path and conversation shall be in eternal goodness and grace.

Note"Arise from sleep" uses sleep in its ordinary ancient sense as a term for death, so the line reads most naturally as rising from the dead. It can also be heard as waking from the inattention of the present age, and the Ethiopic does not settle the question. "The righteous one" is singular, but in this book a singular figure of this kind is often a type standing for the whole class of the righteous rather than one named individual, and that ambiguity is in the original too. "Conversation" in older English, including Charles's 1917 usage, means a person's whole manner of life and dealings with others, not talk.

4He will be kind to the righteous one and give him uprightness that lasts forever. He will give him power, so that he will be filled with goodness and righteousness, and he will walk in light that lasts forever.

4He will be gracious to the righteous and give him eternal uprightness, And He will give him power so that he shall be (endowed) with goodness and righteousness, And he shall walk in eternal light.

5And sin will be destroyed in darkness forever, and it will never be seen again from that day on, for all time to come.

5And sin shall perish in darkness for ever, And shall no more be seen from that day for evermore.