1 Enoch 94

And now I say to you, my sons: love what is right, and live that way. The paths of right living are worth welcoming, but the paths of wrongdoing will suddenly be destroyed and disappear.

1And now I say unto you, my sons, love righteousness and walk therein; For the paths of righteousness are worthy of acceptation, But the paths of unrighteousness shall suddenly be destroyed and vanish.

Note"My sons" addresses Enoch's children and descendants; from here on the book is cast as a father's parting instruction to his family, a form ancient readers knew as a testament. The image of two "paths," one right and one wrong, was a standard teaching device in ancient wisdom writing: a way of living is pictured as a road you pick and then walk down, and the road's end tells you what the choice was worth.

2And to certain people of a generation the paths of violence and of death will be shown, and they will keep themselves far away from those paths, and will not follow them.

2And to certain men of a generation shall the paths of violence and of death be revealed, And they shall hold themselves afar from them, And shall not follow them.

NoteThis verse is compressed and unclear in the Ethiopic, and translators differ over it: who the "certain men of a generation" are, and whether the paths are shown to them as a warning or simply become visible to them, is not settled by the wording itself. The rendering keeps the difficulty rather than deciding it.

3And now I say to you who are righteous: do not walk in the paths of wickedness, or in the paths of death, and do not go near them, or you will be destroyed.

3And now I say unto you the righteous: Walk not in the paths of wickedness, nor in the paths of death, And draw not nigh to them, lest ye be destroyed.

4Instead, look for right living and a chosen life, and pick them for yourselves, and walk in the paths of peace. Then you will live and do well.

4But seek and choose for yourselves righteousness and an elect life, And walk in the paths of peace, And ye shall live and prosper.

Note"Elect" means chosen, and in this book it is close to a technical term: the elect are those God has picked out. "An elect life" is therefore not just any well-chosen life but the kind of life that belongs to the chosen, which is why the verse pairs choosing with being chosen.

5And hold on tightly to my words in the thoughts of your hearts, and do not let them be wiped out of your hearts. For I know that sinners will tempt people to treat wisdom badly, so that no place is found for her, and no kind of temptation grows less.

5And hold fast my words in the thoughts of your hearts, And suffer them not to be effaced from your hearts; For I know that sinners will tempt men to evilly-entreat wisdom, So that no place may be found for her, And no manner of temptation may minish.

NoteWisdom is "her" because in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek the word for wisdom is grammatically feminine, and older Jewish writing regularly pictures Wisdom as a woman who looks for a home among people and can be turned away. "Evilly-entreat" is older English for treat badly or abuse. The last clause, "no manner of temptation may minish," is obscure in the Ethiopic; "minish" is an old form of diminish, and the sense seems to be that temptation never lets up, but the line may be damaged.

6Woe to those who build wrongdoing and cruelty, and lay lies as the foundation. They will suddenly be knocked down, and they will have no peace.

6Woe to those who build unrighteousness and oppression And lay deceit as a foundation; For they shall be suddenly overthrown, And they shall have no peace.

Note"Woe to" is a set formula, not an insult or a curse in the ordinary sense. Prophets used it to open a formal announcement of coming disaster against a named group, the way a herald opens a verdict. A run of these woes begins here and continues for several chapters, each one naming a group and then stating what will happen to them.

7Woe to those who build their houses with sin. Everything they have built will be torn down from the foundations up, and they will die by the sword. And those who get gold and silver in judgment will suddenly perish.

7Woe to those who build their houses with sin; For from all their foundations shall they be overthrown, And by the sword shall they fall. And those who acquire gold and silver in judgement suddenly shall perish.

NoteA "house" in this idiom is both the building and the family and fortune it stands for, so building a house with sin means founding a household and a family line on it; being overthrown "from all their foundations" then means the whole enterprise goes, not just the walls. "Acquire gold and silver in judgement" is ambiguous in the Ethiopic: it can mean getting rich through corrupt legal decisions, wealth won in court, or it can attach to what follows, so that they perish in the judgment. Both readings are possible.

8Woe to you who are rich, because you have put your trust in your riches. You will have to leave your riches behind, because you did not remember the Most High during the days when you were rich.

8Woe to you, ye rich, for ye have trusted in your riches, And from your riches shall ye depart, Because ye have not remembered the Most High in the days of your riches.

Note"The Most High" is an ancient title for God, going back to the Hebrew Elyon, stressing that he is above every other power. It was the ordinary way of naming God in this kind of writing, especially when speaking to or about outsiders and the powerful.

9You have spoken against God and done what is wrong, and you have made yourselves ready for the day of killing, and the day of darkness, and the day of the great judgment.

9Ye have committed blasphemy and unrighteousness, And have become ready for the day of slaughter, And the day of darkness and the day of the great judgement.

Note"The day of slaughter" borrows the language of the butcher's yard: animals fattened without knowing what the fattening is for. "The day of darkness" and "the day of the great judgement" are the same event under other names. In the prophets, "the day" used without further explanation had become a fixed term for a fixed future moment of reckoning.

10This is what I say and declare to you: the one who made you will overthrow you, and there will be no pity for your fall, and your Creator will be glad when you are destroyed.

10Thus I speak and declare unto you: He who hath created you will overthrow you, And for your fall there shall be no compassion, And your Creator will rejoice at your destruction.

11And in those days your righteous ones will be a shame and a rebuke to the sinners and to those who care nothing for God.

11And your righteous ones in those days shall be A reproach to the sinners and the godless.

Note"A reproach" here means a standing rebuke, something whose mere existence shames you, rather than an act of scolding. "Your righteous ones" most likely means the righteous among the sinners' own people or households, so that the contrast is close to home. The wording is terse and its exact force is disputed.