Read This First

The Bible names other books. It does so plainly, in its own text, and more than once. “Is not this written in the book of Jasher?” asks Joshua 10:13. “Now the rest of the acts of Solomon,” says 1 Kings 11:41, “are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?” The writers of Scripture pointed their first readers to documents those readers could go and consult. Most of those documents no longer exist.

This volume gathers every one of them into a single reference. Because the subject attracts a great deal of exaggeration, four facts need to be stated before anything else.

1. Almost all of these books are lost. Of the twenty-two works treated here, twenty-one do not survive as separate books. Nobody can compile their contents, because no copy is known to exist. For those works, this volume gives everything that can honestly be given: the exact words of Scripture that name them, what those words tell us about the book, and the state of the evidence. It does not invent contents for them.

2. One of them survives complete. The Book of Enoch, quoted in Jude 14–15, exists in full in ancient Ethiopic, and in part in Aramaic and Greek. Its text, in the public-domain translation of R. H. Charles, is printed in Part Five of this volume, complete except for one single-verse chapter noted there.

3. Several books in print today carry the names of lost books but are not those books. A “Book of Jasher,” an “Epistle to the Laodiceans,” a “Book of Gad the Seer,” and others can be bought or read online. Part Four explains what each one actually is and when it was written. The best-known of them, the 1840 English “Book of Jasher,” is included with this collection as a separate companion volume, clearly labelled, so the reader can examine it directly.

4. There is no official list of “22 missing books.” No church council, ancient writer, or manuscript gives such a list. The number circulates in popular articles, and different lists disagree with one another because the count depends on choices: whether the “book of Nathan” in 1 Chronicles 29:29 and in 2 Chronicles 9:29 is one work or two, whether the several royal chronicles are one archive or several, and so on. The twenty-two entries in this volume are the works the Bible most clearly cites as separate written documents. Part Three lists the further writings Scripture mentions, so that nothing named in the text is left out.

One historical note on the number itself. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the Jews held twenty-two books to be sacred (Against Apion 1.8). He was counting the books of the Hebrew Bible, the same content as the Protestant Old Testament arranged in fewer scrolls, and not a set of lost books. The coincidence of the number is worth knowing, because the two ideas are sometimes confused.

What “Missing” Means

A book named in the Bible is not for that reason a book that belonged in the Bible. Scripture cites royal archives, a Persian state chronicle, and, in the New Testament, pagan poets (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12). A citation shows that the writer knew the source and expected readers to recognise it. It does not by itself show that the source was regarded as Scripture. Readers will weigh each case differently, and Christian traditions have: the Ethiopian Orthodox Church receives Enoch as canonical, while Jewish, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant canons do not.

Nor does “missing” mean “hidden.” No evidence exists that any of these twenty-two works was suppressed or removed from the canon by a council. The ordinary explanation is enough. Ancient books survived only if someone kept recopying them by hand, generation after generation. Court records and prophetic memoirs that were not copied for worship did not outlast the destruction of Samaria in 722 BC, Jerusalem in 586 BC, and Jerusalem again in AD 70.

How to Use This Volume

Each entry follows the same order: where Scripture names the book, with the verses quoted in full from the King James Version; what the book was; what can be known of its contents; and its status today. Scripture quotations were taken directly from the King James text and checked against it. Dates marked “c.” are approximate. Where scholars disagree, the disagreement is stated instead of being settled by assertion.

The Twenty-Two at a Glance

Twenty do not survive, though a few of them may be partly absorbed into books we have. One may be a book already in the New Testament under another name. One survives complete.

Book 1 of 22

1. The Book of the Wars of the LORD

Named in Scripture

Numbers 21:14–15 (KJV)

¹⁴Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, ¹⁵And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.

What It Was

This is the first lost book named in the Bible, and the only place it is named. Moses is tracing Israel’s march around Moab toward the Arnon, and he supports a point of geography, the border of Moab, by quoting two lines from an existing book. The title suggests a collection of songs or records celebrating the battles the LORD fought for Israel in the wilderness and the approach to Canaan.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Only the fragment quoted above. The Hebrew of the quotation is difficult; where the King James Version reads “What he did in the Red sea,” many later translations read place names, “Waheb in Suphah.” The lines are poetry, which is the strongest indication that the book was a collection of verse. Some scholars suggest that other poems in the same chapter, the Song of the Well (Numbers 21:17–18) and the taunt over Heshbon (Numbers 21:27–30), came from the same or a similar collection. The text does not say so, and the suggestion cannot be proved.

Status today: Lost. No manuscript, fragment, or ancient quotation exists beyond Numbers 21:14–15.

Book 2 of 22

2. The Book of Jasher

Named in Scripture

Joshua 10:13 (KJV)

¹³And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

2 Samuel 1:17–18 (KJV)

¹⁷And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: ¹⁸(Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)

What It Was

“Jasher” is not a person’s name. The Hebrew is Sefer ha-Yashar, “the Book of the Upright” or “the Book of the Just.” The two passages that cite it are both poetry: Joshua’s words to the sun and moon at Gibeon, and David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan, which the King James Version calls “the use of the bow.” From this it is generally concluded that the book was a national anthology of heroic songs.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Two poems are certainly drawn from it: Joshua 10:12–13 and 2 Samuel 1:19–27. Since the second comes from the time of David, the collection was still being added to, or was first assembled, no earlier than David’s reign. A third possible trace exists. The ancient Greek translation of 1 Kings 8, at Solomon’s dedication of the temple, adds that his words are written “in the book of the song.” In Hebrew, “song” and “upright” differ only in the order of two letters, so this may be a third citation of the same book. That reading is a scholarly inference and is not in the Hebrew text or the King James Version.

Status today: Lost. Every book now sold as “the Book of Jasher” is a later composition. See Part Four and the companion volume.

Book 3 of 22

3. The Manner of the Kingdom

Named in Scripture

1 Samuel 10:25 (KJV)

²⁵Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.

What It Was

When Saul was chosen king at Mizpeh, Samuel wrote out the terms on which Israel’s monarchy would operate and deposited the document “before the LORD,” that is, in the sanctuary. It was in effect the written constitution of the kingdom: the rights and limits of the king under God.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

The document itself is not quoted. Two passages show the subjects it is likely to have covered. Deuteronomy 17:14–20 gives the law of the king: he must not multiply horses, wives, or silver and gold, and he must write out his own copy of the law. 1 Samuel 8:11–18 records Samuel’s warning of “the manner of the king” who would take the people’s sons, daughters, fields, and flocks. Whether Samuel’s book repeated these texts or contained other provisions is not known.

Status today: Lost. It was a single document kept at the sanctuary and is never mentioned again.

Book 4 of 22

4. The Book of the Acts of Solomon

Named in Scripture

1 Kings 11:41 (KJV)

⁴¹And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?

What It Was

This is the source the writer of Kings names for the reign of Solomon. By his own description it held three things: Solomon’s acts, “all that he did,” and “his wisdom.” It was therefore longer than the account in 1 Kings 1–11, which the writer presents as a selection from it.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

The detailed material in 1 Kings 3–11 is commonly thought to rest on it: the lists of officials and district governors, the building specifications for the temple and palace, the trading ventures, and the wisdom narratives. 1 Kings 4:32–33 says that Solomon “spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five,” and that he spoke of trees, beasts, fowl, creeping things, and fishes. The biblical book of Proverbs holds only a portion of that number, so much of what Solomon said was recorded elsewhere or not preserved. The Chronicler names a different set of sources for the same reign (see entries 9, 11, and 12).

Status today: Lost.

Book 5 of 22

5. The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel

Named in Scripture

1 Kings 14:19 (KJV)

¹⁹And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

What It Was

This was the official record of the northern kingdom, Israel, from Jeroboam I onward. It is not the biblical book of Chronicles. First and Second Chronicles were written after the exile, later than Kings, and they hardly treat the northern kings at all. The work cited here was an earlier royal annal that the writer of Kings could direct his readers to.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

In the King James Version the phrase “the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel” occurs eighteen times, from 1 Kings 14:19 to 2 Kings 15:31. The citations state what the book contained that Kings omits: how Jeroboam “warred, and how he reigned”; the conspiracy of Zimri (1 Kings 16:20); Ahab’s “ivory house” and “all the cities that he built” (1 Kings 22:39); the “might” of Jehu, Joash, and Jeroboam II, and how the last of these “recovered Damascus, and Hamath” (2 Kings 14:28). It was a record of wars, building works, and conspiracies, reign by reign. No citation appears for Hoshea, the last northern king, in whose reign Samaria fell.

Status today: Lost, presumably in or after the fall of Samaria in 722 BC, although the writer of Kings still had access to it or to extracts from it.

Book 6 of 22

6. The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah

Named in Scripture

1 Kings 14:29 (KJV)

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

What It Was

The southern counterpart of the previous entry: the royal annals of the house of David in Jerusalem, beginning with Rehoboam. Like its northern twin, it is a different work from the canonical books of Chronicles.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

The phrase occurs fifteen times in the King James Version, from 1 Kings 14:29 to 2 Kings 24:5. The citations mention Asa’s might and “the cities which he built” (1 Kings 15:23), Jehoshaphat’s wars (1 Kings 22:45), and Hezekiah’s engineering: “how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city” (2 Kings 20:20). The last king for whom it is cited is Jehoiakim. The books of Chronicles cite a work under similar titles, “the book of the kings of Judah and Israel” and “the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.” Whether that was this same archive, a combined edition, or the canonical books of Kings is debated.

Status today: Lost, presumably in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

Book 7 of 22

7. The Chronicles of King David

Named in Scripture

1 Chronicles 27:24 (KJV)

²⁴Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but he finished not, because there fell wrath for it against Israel; neither was the number put in the account of the chronicles of king David.

What It Was

A court register kept during David’s reign, in which official figures were entered. The verse records something left out of it: Joab’s unfinished census was not written into “the account of the chronicles of king David,” because judgment fell on Israel for the numbering.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

The context, 1 Chronicles 23–27, consists of administrative lists: the divisions of the Levites, priests, singers, and gatekeepers, the twelve monthly army divisions, the tribal chiefs, and the stewards of the royal property. Lists of this kind are what a register called “the chronicles of king David” would contain, and the Chronicler may have drawn some of them from it. That is an inference; the text cites the register only for the census figure it did not hold.

Status today: Lost.

Book 8 of 22

8. The Book of Samuel the Seer

Named in Scripture

1 Chronicles 29:29–30 (KJV)

²⁹Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer, ³⁰With all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.

What It Was

The Chronicler closes David’s reign by naming three prophetic records, each under the name of a prophet who stood beside David at a different stage of his life: Samuel, who anointed him; Nathan, who served at his court; and Gad, who was with him as a fugitive and afterward. The word translated “book” in this verse is the Hebrew dibre, “words” or “acts,” the same word translated “acts” at the start of the verse.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Two views are held. On the first, these were three independent works, now lost, which contained more than our Bible does about David’s “reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.” On the second, the Chronicler is describing the canonical books of Samuel under the names of their prophetic authors. An old Jewish tradition preserved in the Talmud (Bava Batra 14b–15a) says that Samuel wrote the book that bears his name and that Gad and Nathan completed it after his death, which is recorded in 1 Samuel 25:1. On that view this book is not missing at all. The text of Chronicles does not settle the question.

Status today: Either lost, or preserved in substance in 1 and 2 Samuel. No separate text exists.

Book 9 of 22

9. The Book of Nathan the Prophet

Named in Scripture

1 Chronicles 29:29 (KJV)

²⁹Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,

2 Chronicles 9:29 (KJV)

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

What It Was

A record under the name of Nathan, cited as a source for two reigns: David’s and Solomon’s. Nathan is the prophet who delivered the promise of an everlasting house to David (2 Samuel 7), who confronted him after the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 12), and who secured Solomon’s succession (1 Kings 1).

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Those three episodes are the ones in which Nathan acts, and a book in his name would naturally have recorded them. Because it is cited for Solomon’s acts “first and last,” it extended at least into Solomon’s reign. As with the book of Samuel the seer, some hold that it survives in part within Samuel and Kings. Short “fragments of the Book of Nathan” circulate online. They have no known ancient manuscript behind them and are not reproduced here.

Status today: Lost as a separate work.

Book 10 of 22

10. The Book of Gad the Seer

Named in Scripture

1 Chronicles 29:29 (KJV)

²⁹Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,

What It Was

A record under the name of Gad, called “David’s seer” (1 Chronicles 21:9). Gad told David to leave the stronghold and return to Judah (1 Samuel 22:5), brought him the choice of three judgments after the census and directed him to build the altar on Araunah’s threshing floor (2 Samuel 24:11–19), and helped arrange the temple music (2 Chronicles 29:25).

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Nothing beyond those episodes. A Hebrew work titled The Words of Gad the Seer does exist, in a manuscript copied in the eighteenth century among the Jews of Cochin, India, and now held at Cambridge University Library. It was published in a scholarly edition by Meir Bar-Ilan in 2015. Its editor argues for a date in the early centuries AD; other scholars place it in the Middle Ages. No one who has studied it maintains that it is the tenth-century BC record cited by the Chronicler. See Part Four.

Status today: Lost. The Cochin manuscript is a much later work under the same name.

Book 11 of 22

11. The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 9:29 (KJV)

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

What It Was

A written prophecy by Ahijah of Shiloh, cited as a source for the reign of Solomon. Ahijah is the prophet who met Jeroboam on the road, tore a new garment into twelve pieces, and gave him ten, announcing the division of the kingdom (1 Kings 11:29–39). Years later, blind with age, he pronounced judgment on Jeroboam’s house (1 Kings 14:1–18).

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Since it is cited for Solomon’s reign, it must have included the oracle of the torn garment, which concerns the judgment on Solomon’s idolatry. Whether it held further prophecies is unknown.

Status today: Lost. Two of Ahijah’s oracles are preserved in 1 Kings.

Book 12 of 22

12. The Visions and Story of Iddo the Seer

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 9:29 (KJV)

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

2 Chronicles 12:15 (KJV)

¹⁵Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

2 Chronicles 13:22 (KJV)

²²And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo.

What It Was

Iddo is cited for three consecutive reigns under three descriptions: his “visions against Jeroboam the son of Nebat” for Solomon, his book “concerning genealogies” for Rehoboam, and his “story” for Abijah. These may be three works or three sections of one. Many lists count them separately, which is one reason totals differ.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

The word translated “story” in 2 Chronicles 13:22 is the Hebrew midrash, a word found in the Old Testament only here and in 2 Chronicles 24:27. It means an inquiry or exposition, so Iddo’s work on Abijah was an interpretive account and not a bare annal. Iddo himself appears nowhere in the narrative of Kings or Chronicles; he is known only from these three source citations. He is not to be confused with the grandfather of the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 1:1), who lived some four centuries later.

Status today: Lost.

Book 13 of 22

13. The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 12:15 (KJV)

¹⁵Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

What It Was

A record by the prophet Shemaiah, cited for the reign of Rehoboam. Shemaiah is the “man of God” who stopped Rehoboam from marching against the ten tribes with the word, “this thing is from me” (1 Kings 12:22–24), and who interpreted the invasion of Shishak king of Egypt as judgment, then announced a measure of deliverance when the princes humbled themselves (2 Chronicles 12:5–8).

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

It covered Rehoboam’s acts “first and last,” and the Chronicler’s account of Shishak’s invasion, which is much fuller than the account in Kings, may depend on it. That dependence is probable but cannot be shown.

Status today: Lost.

Book 14 of 22

14. The Book of Jehu the Son of Hanani

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 20:34 (KJV)

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Jehu the son of Hanani, who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.

What It Was

A prophetic record cited for the reign of Jehoshaphat. Jehu son of Hanani prophesied against Baasha king of Israel (1 Kings 16:1–7) and, decades later, rebuked Jehoshaphat for his alliance with Ahab: “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD?” (2 Chronicles 19:2). His father Hanani was the seer imprisoned by King Asa (2 Chronicles 16:7–10).

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

The verse adds an important detail: Jehu’s book “is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel,” or, as the Hebrew may be rendered, was entered into it. This shows how such writings were handled. A prophet’s record could be taken up into a larger royal history, which suggests that several of the prophetic “books” in this list were sections of one comprehensive work and not separate scrolls.

Status today: Lost, together with the larger work that contained it.

Book 15 of 22

15. The Acts of Uzziah, Written by Isaiah

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 26:22 (KJV)

²²Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.

What It Was

A history of the fifty-two-year reign of King Uzziah, written by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. It is not the biblical book of Isaiah. That book dates Isaiah’s visions from Uzziah’s days (Isaiah 1:1) and his commissioning to “the year that king Uzziah died” (Isaiah 6:1), but it contains no account of Uzziah’s reign.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Presumably the matters summarised in 2 Chronicles 26: Uzziah’s wars against the Philistines and Arabians, his towers, cisterns, and engines of war in Jerusalem, his entry into the temple to burn incense, and the leprosy that struck him. A related citation appears in 2 Chronicles 32:32, where Hezekiah’s acts are “written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet”; that one can be matched with Isaiah 36–39. The Uzziah history cannot be matched with anything that survives.

Status today: Lost.

Book 16 of 22

16. The Sayings of the Seers

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 33:18–19 (KJV)

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. ¹⁹His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.

What It Was

The source cited for the repentance of King Manasseh. The Hebrew text reads dibre Hozai, which may be translated “the words of the seers,” as the King James Version does following the ancient Greek, or “the words of Hozai,” taking Hozai as the name of an otherwise unknown prophet. The King James margin records the second reading.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

The verse lists them: Manasseh’s prayer, how God was intreated of him, his sin and trespass, and the sites of his high places, groves, and images before he humbled himself. The prayer itself is not given in Chronicles. A short work called the Prayer of Manasseh, fifteen verses long, was composed later to supply it, probably in the last two centuries BC. It was printed in the Apocrypha of the 1611 King James Bible and is used in some churches’ worship. It is a later devotional composition and not the document the Chronicler cites.

Status today: Lost. The Prayer of Manasseh in the Apocrypha is a different, later text.

Book 17 of 22

17. The Story of the Book of the Kings

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 24:27 (KJV)

²⁷Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

What It Was

The source cited for the reign of Joash of Judah. “Story” again translates the Hebrew midrash (see entry 12): this was an exposition of, or commentary upon, a “book of the kings.” It is the earliest reference anywhere to a written commentary on an Israelite historical book.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

According to the verse: the sons of Joash, “the greatness of the burdens laid upon him,” and the repairing of the house of God. “Burdens” may mean prophetic oracles pronounced against him or the tribute he paid to Hazael of Syria (2 Kings 12:17–18); the Hebrew allows either. Whether this midrash was the same work as “the book of the kings of Israel and Judah” cited elsewhere in Chronicles, or an expansion of it, is not known.

Status today: Lost.

Book 18 of 22

18. The Lamentations for Josiah

Named in Scripture

2 Chronicles 35:25 (KJV)

²⁵And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

What It Was

A collection of funeral songs. When Josiah was killed at Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho, about 609 BC, Jeremiah composed a lament for him, the professional singers kept the custom of lamenting him, and the laments were written down in a book called “the lamentations.”

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

This is not the biblical book of Lamentations. That book mourns the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, more than twenty years after Josiah’s death, and never names him. An old tradition connected the two because Lamentations 4:20 speaks of “the anointed of the LORD” taken in the enemy’s pits, but the setting of that chapter is the fall of the city. Jeremiah’s lament for Josiah is not preserved in the book of Jeremiah either, although Jeremiah 22:10–16 speaks of Josiah with honour.

Status today: Lost.

Book 19 of 22

19. The Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia

Named in Scripture

Esther 10:2 (KJV)

²And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

Esther 6:1 (KJV)

¹On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.

What It Was

The state annals of the Persian empire. This is the one work in the list that was never an Israelite book at all. The writer of Esther points to the imperial record as public confirmation of the greatness of Mordecai, in the same form of words the writer of Kings uses for the annals of Israel and Judah.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Esther mentions the royal chronicle three times. The plot of Bigthan and Teresh against the king, and Mordecai’s report of it, “was written in the book of the chronicles before the king” (Esther 2:23). That entry was read to the sleepless king (Esther 6:1–2), which turned the whole story. And the acts of Ahasuerus with “the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai” were entered in it (Esther 10:2). Ezra 4:15 and 6:1–2 likewise refer to searches of the Persian royal archives. Persian administrative tablets have been recovered by archaeologists at Persepolis, but no narrative royal chronicle of the kind Esther describes has been found.

Status today: Lost.

Book 20 of 22

20. Paul’s Earlier Letter to Corinth

Named in Scripture

1 Corinthians 5:9–11 (KJV)

⁹I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: ¹⁰Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. ¹¹But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

What It Was

A letter from the apostle Paul to the church at Corinth, written before the letter we call First Corinthians. Paul refers to it directly: “I wrote unto you in an epistle.” Our First Corinthians is therefore at least the second letter he sent them.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

One instruction: not to keep company with fornicators. The Corinthians had taken this to mean withdrawing from immoral people in general, and Paul corrects the misunderstanding: he meant anyone “called a brother” who lives that way. Nothing else is known of the letter. Paul also mentions a letter written “out of much affliction and anguish of heart” and “with many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:3–4; 7:8). Many interpreters take that to be yet another lost letter, sent between First and Second Corinthians; others identify it with First Corinthians, and some with 2 Corinthians 10–13. If it was separate, Paul wrote at least four letters to Corinth, of which two survive.

A text called Third Corinthians exists. It is part of the second-century Acts of Paul and was for a time included in the Bible of the Armenian church. It is a later composition written against second-century heresies, and it is not the letter Paul mentions here.

Status today: Lost.

Book 21 of 22

21. The Epistle from Laodicea

Named in Scripture

Colossians 4:16 (KJV)

¹⁶And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

What It Was

A letter that the church at Colosse was to obtain from the neighbouring church at Laodicea and read publicly, while sending its own letter to Laodicea in exchange. Paul’s wording is “the epistle from Laodicea”: a letter that would come to Colosse from that city. He does not call it a letter addressed to the Laodiceans, though it is usually understood as a letter of his that the Laodiceans held.

What Can Be Known of Its Contents

Three explanations have been offered since ancient times. The first is that the letter is lost. The second is that it is the letter we know as Ephesians. Ephesians reads like a circular letter, with no personal greetings; the words “at Ephesus” in Ephesians 1:1 are absent from several of the oldest Greek manuscripts; and Tertullian reports that Marcion, in the second century, knew the letter under the title “To the Laodiceans” (Against Marcion 5.11, 5.17). On this view the letter was carried by Tychicus through the region with Colossians (Ephesians 6:21–22; Colossians 4:7–8), and nothing is missing. The third explanation points to a short Latin “Epistle to the Laodiceans,” found in many medieval Latin Bibles. That text is a later compilation of phrases from Paul’s genuine letters and is examined in Part Four.

Status today: Either lost, or preserved as Ephesians. The Latin letter under this name is not genuine.

Book 22 of 22

22. The Book of Enoch

Named in Scripture

Jude 14–15 (KJV)

¹⁴And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, ¹⁵To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

What It Is

The only work in this list that survives complete. Jude’s words correspond closely to 1 Enoch 1:9, which in the translation printed in Part Five reads: “And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgement upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly: and to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

The Book of Enoch, called 1 Enoch to distinguish it from two later books under the same name, is a collection of five writings in 108 chapters: the Book of the Watchers (chapters 1–36), the Parables or Similitudes (37–71), the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries (72–82), the Dream Visions (83–90), and the Epistle of Enoch with its appendices (91–108).

Date and Authorship

The book presents itself as the words of Enoch, “the seventh from Adam” (Genesis 5:18–24). Scholars are nearly unanimous that its parts were composed by Jewish writers between about the third century BC and the first century BC or AD, with the Parables the most disputed section. The oldest physical evidence is a group of Aramaic fragments from Cave 4 at Qumran, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, some copied in the second century BC. Those fragments represent every section except the Parables. Readers who hold that Jude’s citation confirms a genuine prophecy of the patriarch should know that this is the scholarly position and the evidence on which it rests.

How It Survived

The book was written in Aramaic, perhaps partly in Hebrew, and translated into Greek and from Greek into Ge’ez, the classical language of Ethiopia. It was read by early Christians; Tertullian defended it, and the Epistle of Barnabas cites it. By the fourth and fifth centuries it had fallen out of use in the Greek and Latin churches, and for over a thousand years it was known in Europe only through quotations. The Ethiopian church never ceased to copy it. The Scottish traveller James Bruce brought three Ethiopic manuscripts to Europe in 1773. Richard Laurence published the first English translation in 1821. R. H. Charles published his translation in 1893 and a thorough revision in 1912; the revision, reissued in 1917, is printed here. Substantial Greek portions were recovered in Egypt in the 1880s, and the Aramaic fragments at Qumran from 1952.

Its Standing

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church receive Enoch as Scripture. No other Jewish or Christian body does. Jude’s use of it shows that he and his readers knew the book and that he regarded the words he quoted as true prophecy. Whether that extends to the whole book is the point on which interpreters have differed since the second century.

Status today: Survives. Complete in Ethiopic; partial in Aramaic and Greek. English text in Part Five.

Other Writings Scripture Mentions

The twenty-two entries above are the works Scripture cites most clearly as separate written documents. The Bible mentions other writings as well. They are gathered here so that the record is complete. Several of them are probably not lost books at all, and the notes say so.

The Memorial Concerning Amalek

Exodus 17:14 (KJV)

¹⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

The first command to write in the Bible. Usually understood as a record that became part of Exodus itself.

The Book of the Covenant

Exodus 24:7 (KJV)

⁷And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.

Generally identified with the laws of Exodus 20–23, which Moses had just written (Exodus 24:4). Not lost.

The Survey of the Land

Joshua 18:9 (KJV)

⁹And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to the host at Shiloh.

A written description of the unallotted land in seven parts, used to divide it by lot at Shiloh. Its substance is thought to underlie the boundary and town lists of Joshua 18–19.

The Three Thousand Proverbs and Thousand and Five Songs of Solomon

1 Kings 4:32–33 (KJV)

³²And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. ³³And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

The text says Solomon “spake” these; it does not say they were all written down. The canonical Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon hold only part of that number.

The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah

2 Chronicles 27:7 (KJV)

⁷Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Cited under several similar titles in Chronicles (1 Chronicles 9:1; 2 Chronicles 16:11; 25:26; 28:26; 32:32; 35:27; 36:8; compare 20:34 and 33:18). It may be the canonical books of Kings, the royal annals of entries 5 and 6, or a combined history now lost.

The Writing of Elijah

2 Chronicles 21:12 (KJV)

¹²And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,

A letter from the prophet Elijah to Jehoram king of Judah. Its contents are quoted in 2 Chronicles 21:12–15, so the letter is preserved.

The Writing of David and the Writing of Solomon

2 Chronicles 35:4 (KJV)

⁴And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

Written directions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, appealed to by Josiah. Compare 1 Chronicles 28:11–19, where David gives Solomon the temple pattern “in writing.”

The Book of the Chronicles (Levitical Register)

Nehemiah 12:23 (KJV)

²³The sons of Levi, the chief of the fathers, were written in the book of the chronicles, even until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.

A register of the heads of Levitical families kept after the exile. Not the canonical Chronicles.

The Register of the Genealogy

Nehemiah 7:5 (KJV)

⁵And my God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first, and found written therein,

Found by Nehemiah and copied into his book as Nehemiah 7:6–73 (compare Ezra 2). Preserved.

The Book of the LORD

Isaiah 34:16 (KJV)

¹⁶Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

Usually taken to mean the prophetic Scriptures themselves, or Isaiah’s own written prophecy. Not a lost book.

Jeremiah’s First Scroll

Jeremiah 36:23 (KJV)

²³And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

Burned by King Jehoiakim. Jeremiah dictated it again to Baruch, “and there were added besides unto them many like words” (Jeremiah 36:32). The rewritten scroll underlies the book of Jeremiah.

The Book of Remembrance

Malachi 3:16 (KJV)

¹⁶Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

A book written before the LORD in heaven, not an earthly document.

The Many Earlier Narratives

Luke 1:1 (KJV)

¹Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,

Luke knew of “many” written accounts of the life of Christ before his own. Mark is generally thought to be one; the others are unidentified.

The Sorrowful Letter to Corinth

2 Corinthians 2:4 (KJV)

⁴For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

See entry 20. Possibly a further lost letter of Paul.

“As I Wrote Afore in Few Words”

Ephesians 3:3 (KJV)

³How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

Sometimes listed as a lost earlier letter to Ephesus. Most interpreters take it to refer to what Paul has just written earlier in the same letter (Ephesians 1:9–10; 2:11–22).

John’s Letter to the Church

3 John 9 (KJV)

⁹I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

A letter John had written to the church where Diotrephes held sway. It may be 2 John, or it may be lost.

Jude’s Intended Letter

Jude 3 (KJV)

³Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Jude says he had been giving diligence to write of “the common salvation.” The text does not say that such a letter was ever written.

Writings Quoted or Echoed Without Being Named

The New Testament also draws on writings it does not cite by title. They are not “missing books of the Bible,” but they are often included in popular lists, so their status is noted here.

The dispute over the body of Moses (Jude 9). Jude refers to the archangel Michael contending with the devil about the body of Moses. The Old Testament contains no such account. The third-century writer Origen says the incident came from a work called the Ascension, or Assumption, of Moses (On First Principles 3.2.1). A Latin text known as the Assumption, or Testament, of Moses survives in a single incomplete manuscript, and the surviving part does not contain the incident.

Jannes and Jambres (2 Timothy 3:8). Paul names the Egyptian magicians who withstood Moses. Their names do not occur in Exodus. They come from Jewish tradition, and a book about them existed in antiquity, of which only fragments remain.

Pagan poets. Paul quotes Greek poets three times: “For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28), a line from the Phaenomena of Aratus; “evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33), a line attributed to the playwright Menander; and “The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” (Titus 1:12), attributed to Epimenides of Crete. These show that quotation is not the same as endorsement of a whole work.

Books That Bear These Names Today

Because the Bible names these books, later writers produced works under the same titles: some as honest retellings, some as pious imitation, and at least one as deliberate fraud. The following are the texts a reader is most likely to meet. None of them is the ancient book whose name it bears.

The Books Called “Jasher”

Sefer ha-Yashar (printed 1625; English 1840). A Hebrew retelling of biblical history from Adam to the Judges, first printed in Venice in 1625. Its preface claims that the book was rescued from Jerusalem at its destruction in AD 70. Its language, its sources, and its references to later peoples and places show it to be a medieval work; most scholars date its composition between the ninth and sixteenth centuries. It belongs to the Jewish tradition of midrash, expansive retelling of Scripture, and was not written as a fraud. It includes the two passages the Bible cites, the standing still of the sun and the teaching of the bow, because its author worked from the Bible. An English translation was published in New York in 1840 by Mordecai M. Noah and A. S. Gould; the translation is generally credited to Moses Samuel of Liverpool. This is the book usually sold today as “The Book of Jasher.” Its complete 1840 text, ninety-one chapters, is supplied as the companion volume to this collection.

The “Alcuin” Jasher (1751). A short book printed in London in 1751 by Jacob Ilive, who claimed it had been translated by the eighth-century English scholar Alcuin from a manuscript found in Persia. It was exposed as Ilive’s own invention in his lifetime. It was reprinted at Bristol in 1829 and is still sometimes circulated. It is a forgery.

Other medieval Hebrew books also bear the title Sefer ha-Yashar, among them an ethical treatise and a legal work by Rabbi Jacob Tam. They have no connection with the biblical citation beyond the title.

The Words of Gad the Seer

A Hebrew work of fourteen chapters preserved in a single manuscript, copied in the eighteenth century in the Jewish community of Cochin, India, and now at Cambridge University Library. It contains visions, episodes from David’s life, and some material paralleled in Samuel and Chronicles. Meir Bar-Ilan, who published the critical edition in 2015, dates it to the early centuries AD; others consider it medieval. It is a real and interesting Jewish text. It is not the record of David’s reign that the Chronicler cited, and its modern English translation is under copyright, so it is not reproduced here.

The Latin Epistle to the Laodiceans

A letter of about twenty verses, written in Paul’s name and made almost entirely of phrases taken from his genuine letters, above all Philippians. The oldest copy is in the Codex Fuldensis, a Latin New Testament completed about AD 546. It was copied in a large number of Latin Bibles through the Middle Ages and translated into several medieval languages, English among them. It was never accepted in the Greek church. Jerome wrote around AD 392 that some read a letter to the Laodiceans “but it is rejected by everyone” (On Illustrious Men 5). The second-century Muratorian list also mentions a letter to the Laodiceans forged in Paul’s name to promote the teaching of Marcion; whether that is the same text is uncertain. The Latin letter was evidently composed to supply the letter mentioned in Colossians 4:16.

Third Corinthians

An exchange of letters between the Corinthians and Paul, contained in the Acts of Paul, a work written in Asia Minor in the second half of the second century. Tertullian reports that the elder who composed the Acts of Paul was removed from office for doing so (On Baptism 17). The letter was treated as Scripture for a time in the Syriac and Armenian churches.

The Prayer of Manasseh

A penitential prayer of fifteen verses, composed to match 2 Chronicles 33:18–19. See entry 16.

Fragments of Nathan, Iddo, and Others

Texts presented online as recovered fragments of the books of Nathan, Iddo, Shemaiah, or Ahijah have no ancient manuscript, no publication in a scholarly edition, and no chain of custody. Until such evidence is produced they should be treated as modern compositions.

How to Test a Claim

Four questions settle most cases. Where is the manuscript, and who holds it? How old is the manuscript itself, as distinct from the age the text claims? In what language was it written, and does that language fit the claimed period? And has the text been published and examined by scholars who read that language? The Book of Enoch passes all four: the manuscripts exist in libraries, the oldest are more than two thousand years old, and they have been published and studied for two centuries. The Venice Jasher passes the first and fails the second and third. The 1751 Jasher fails all four.

About This Text of Enoch

Translation. The text that follows is the English translation of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch by Robert Henry Charles (1855–1931), Archdeacon of Westminster, in the revised form published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1912 and reissued by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1917. It is in the public domain. It is reproduced from a public digital transcription. The wording has not been altered. A few traces of the transcription remain, such as stray line letters in the verse passages.

Chapter and verse. Chapter and verse numbers follow Charles. Chapter numbers stand as headings; verse numbers are printed in small figures. In the transcription used here some verse numbers were not marked, so that the words of an unnumbered verse run on within the verse before it. The words are present; only the number is missing. This affects verses in chapters 5, 10, 14, 16, 18, 22, 25, 39, 46, 60, 76, and 93.

Order of chapters 91 to 93. Charles judged that these chapters had been displaced in the manuscripts and printed them in what he took to be the original order: chapter 92; chapter 91, verses 1–11 and 18–19; chapter 93; then chapter 91, verses 12–17, which completes the Apocalypse of Weeks begun in chapter 93. That order is kept here.

One omission. Chapter 44, which consists of a single verse, is absent from the transcription and is marked at its place. Every other chapter, 107 of the 108, is given.

Editorial marks. The marks are Charles’s own and are kept. Words in round brackets ( ) were supplied by the translator to complete the English sense. Words in square brackets [ ] he regarded as later additions to the text. Words between the corner marks ⌈ ⌉ are found in the Greek version but not in the Ethiopic. Words between daggers † † he considered corrupt in the manuscripts. A row of dots marks a place where he judged that words had been lost. In chapter 22 Charles printed the Ethiopic and Greek versions side by side; here they follow one another, labelled E (Ethiopic) and Gg (the Greek manuscript found at Akhmim, Egypt), so some verse numbers in that chapter appear twice.

The five books. The Book of the Watchers, chapters 1–36. The Parables, chapters 37–71. The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries, chapters 72–82. The Dream Visions, chapters 83–90. The Epistle of Enoch and concluding sections, chapters 91–108. The verse Jude quotes is chapter 1, verse 9.

The Book of Enoch

The Book of the Watchers

Chapter 1

¹The words of the blessing of Enoch, wherewith he blessed the elect and righteous, who will be living in the day of tribulation, when all the wicked and godless are to be removed.

²And he took up his parable and said—Enoch a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come.

³Concerning the elect I said, and took up my parable concerning them:
The Holy Great One will come forth from His dwelling,

⁴And the eternal God will tread upon the earth, (even) on Mount Sinai, And appear from His camp
And appear in the strength of His might from the heaven of heavens.

⁵And all shall be smitten with fear
And the Watchers shall quake,
And great fear and trembling shall seize them unto the ends of the earth.

⁶And the high mountains shall be shaken,
And the high hills shall be made low,
And shall melt like wax before the flame

⁷And the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder,
And all that is upon the earth shall perish,
And there shall be a judgement upon all (men).

⁸But with the righteous He will make peace.
And will protect the elect,
And mercy shall be upon them.
And they shall all belong to God,
And they shall be prospered,
And they shall all be blessed.
And He will help them all,
And light shall appear unto them,
And He will make peace with them.

⁹And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones
To execute judgement upon all,
And to destroy all the ungodly:
And to convict all flesh
Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed,
And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.

Chapter 2

¹Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they do not change their orbits, and the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and transgress not against their appointed order.

²Behold ye the earth, and give heed to the things which take place upon it from first to last, how steadfast they are, how none of the things upon earth change, but all the works of God appear to you.

³Behold the summer and the winter, how the whole earth is filled with water, and clouds and dew and rain lie upon it.

Chapter 3

¹Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.

Chapter 4

¹And again, observe ye the days of summer how the sun is above the earth over against it. And you seek shade and shelter by reason of the heat of the sun, and the earth also burns with growing heat, and so you cannot tread on the earth, or on a rock by reason of its heat.

Chapter 5

¹Observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed and know with regard to all His works, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so.

²And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and ⌈their tasks⌉ change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done.

³And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and change not their tasks from His commandments.

⁴But ye—ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord,
But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words
With your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace.

⁵Therefore shall ye execrate your days,
And the years of your life shall perish,
And the years of your destruction shall be multiplied in eternal execration,
And ye shall find no mercy.
6a In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous,
b. And by you shall all who curse, curse,
And all the sinners and godless shall imprecate by you,
7c And for you the godless there shall be a curse.
6d And all the . . . shall rejoice,
e. And there shall be forgiveness of sins,
f. And every mercy and peace and forbearance:
g. There shall be salvation unto them, a goodly light.
i. And for all of you sinners there shall be no salvation,
j But on you all shall abide a curse.
7a But for the elect there shall be light and joy and peace,
b. And they shall inherit the earth.

⁸And then there shall be bestowed upon the elect wisdom,
And they shall all live and never again sin,
Either through ungodliness or through pride:
But they who are wise shall be humble.

⁹And they shall not again transgress,
Nor shall they sin all the days of their life,
Nor shall they die of (the divine) anger or wrath,
But they shall complete the number of the days of their life.
And their lives shall be increased in peace,
And the years of their joy shall be multiplied,
In eternal gladness and peace,
All the days of their life.

Chapter 6

¹And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.

²And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'

³And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.'

⁴And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.'

⁵Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

⁶And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

⁷And these are the names of their leaders: Sêmîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl.

⁸These are their chiefs of tens.

Chapter 7

¹And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.

²And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells:

³Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them,

⁴the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.

⁵And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood.

⁶Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

Chapter 8

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.

²And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun, and Sariêl the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .

Chapter 9

¹And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth.

²And they said one to another: 'The earth made without inhabitant cries the voice of their crying up to the gates of heaven.

³And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men make their suit, saying, "Bring our cause before the Most High.".'

⁴And they said to the Lord of the ages: 'Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, and God of the ages, the throne of Thy glory (standeth) unto all the generations of the ages, and Thy name holy and glorious and blessed unto all the ages!

⁵Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou: and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee.

⁶Thou seest what Azâzêl hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven, which men were striving to learn:

⁷And Semjâzâ, to whom Thou hast given authority to bear rule over his associates.

⁸And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins.

⁹And the women have borne giants, and the whole earth has thereby been filled with blood and unrighteousness.

¹⁰And now, behold, the souls of those who have died are crying and making their suit to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have ascended: and cannot cease because of the lawless deeds which are wrought on the earth.

¹¹And Thou knowest all things before they come to pass, and Thou seest these things and Thou dost suffer them, and Thou dost not say to us what we are to do to them in regard to these.'

Chapter 10

¹Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him:

²'Go to Noah and tell him in my name "Hide thyself!" and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it.

³And now instruct him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.'

⁴And again the Lord said to Raphael: 'Bind Azâzêl hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dûdâêl, and cast him therein.

⁵And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light.

⁶And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire. And heal the earth which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague, and that all the children of men may not perish through all the secret things that the Watchers have disclosed and have taught their sons.

⁸And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azâzêl: to him ascribe all sin.'

⁹And to Gabriel said the Lord: 'Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy the children of fornication and the children of the Watchers from amongst men and cause them to go forth: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle: for length of days shall they not have.

¹⁰And no request that they (i.e. their fathers) make of thee shall be granted unto their fathers on their behalf; for they hope to live an eternal life, and that each one of them will live five hundred years.'

¹¹And the Lord said unto Michael: 'Go, bind Semjâzâ and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness.

¹²And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated.

¹³In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all generations.

¹⁵And destroy all the spirits of the reprobate and the children of the Watchers, because they have wronged mankind. Destroy all wrong from the face of the earth and let every evil work come to an end: and let the plant of righteousness and truth appear: and it shall prove a blessing; the works of righteousness and truth shall be planted in truth and joy for evermore.

¹⁷And then shall all the righteous escape,
And shall live till they beget thousands of children,
And all the days of their youth and their old age shall they complete in peace.

¹⁸And then shall the whole earth be tilled in righteousness, and shall all be planted with trees and be full of blessing.

¹⁹And all desirable trees shall be planted on it, and they shall plant vines on it: and the vine which they plant thereon shall yield wine in abundance, and as for all the seed which is sown thereon each measure (of it) shall bear a thousand, and each measure of olives shall yield ten presses of oil.

²⁰And cleanse thou the earth from all oppression, and from all unrighteousness, and from all sin, and from all godlessness: and all the uncleanness that is wrought upon the earth destroy from off the earth.

²¹And all the children of men shall become righteous, and all nations shall offer adoration and shall praise Me, and all shall worship Me. And the earth shall be cleansed from all defilement, and from all sin, and from all punishment, and from all torment, and I will never again send (them) upon it from generation to generation and for ever.

Chapter 11

¹And in those days I will open the store chambers of blessing which are in the heaven, so as to send them down upon the earth over the work and labour of the children of men.

²And truth and peace shall be associated together throughout all the days of the world and throughout all the generations of men.'

Chapter 12

¹Before these things Enoch was hidden, and no one of the children of men knew where he was hidden, and where he abode, and what had become of him.

²And his activities had to do with the Watchers, and his days were with the holy ones.

³And I, Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! the Watchers called me—Enoch the scribe—and said to me:

⁴'Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go, declare to the Watchers of the heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of earth do, and have taken unto themselves wives: "Ye have wrought great destruction on the earth:

⁵And ye shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin: and inasmuch as they delight themselves in their children,

⁶The murder of their beloved ones shall they see, and over the destruction of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication unto eternity, but mercy and peace shall ye not attain."'

Chapter 13

¹And Enoch went and said: 'Azâzêl, thou shalt have no peace: a severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds:

²And thou shalt not have toleration nor †request† granted to thee, because of the unrighteousness which thou hast taught, and because of all the works of godlessness and unrighteousness and sin which thou hast shown to men.'

³Then I went and spoke to them all together, and they were all afraid, and fear and trembling seized them.

⁴And they besought me to draw up a petition for them that they might find forgiveness, and to read their petition in the presence of the Lord of heaven.

⁵For from thenceforward they could not speak (with Him) nor lift up their eyes to heaven for shame of their sins for which they had been condemned.

⁶Then I wrote out their petition, and the prayer in regard to their spirits and their deeds individually and in regard to their requests that they should have forgiveness and length of days.

⁷And I went off and sat down at the waters of Dan, in the land of Dan, to the south of the west of Hermon: I read their petition till I fell asleep.

⁸And behold a dream came to me, and visions fell down upon me, and I saw visions of chastisement, and a voice came bidding (me) I to tell it to the sons of heaven, and reprimand them.

⁹And when I awaked, I came unto them, and they were all sitting gathered together, weeping in 'Abelsjâîl, which is between Lebanon and Sênêsêr, with their faces covered.

¹⁰And I recounted before them all the visions which I had seen in sleep, and I began to speak the words of righteousness, and to reprimand the heavenly Watchers.

Chapter 14

¹The book of the words of righteousness, and of the reprimand of the eternal Watchers in accordance with the command of the Holy Great One in that vision.

²I saw in my sleep what I will now say with a tongue of flesh and with the breath of my mouth: which the Great One has given to men to converse therewith and understand with the heart.

³As He has created and given to man the power of understanding the word of wisdom, so hath He created me also and given me the power of reprimanding the Watchers, the children of heaven.

⁴I wrote out your petition, and in my vision it appeared thus, that your petition will not be granted unto you throughout all the days of eternity, and that judgement has been finally passed upon you: yea (your petition) will not be granted unto you.

⁵And from henceforth you shall not ascend into heaven unto all eternity, and in bonds of the earth the decree has gone forth to bind you for all the days of the world.

⁶And (that) previously you shall have seen the destruction of your beloved sons and ye shall have no pleasure in them, but they shall fall before you by the sword.

⁷And your petition on their behalf shall not be granted, nor yet on your own: even though you weep and pray and speak all the words contained in the writing which I have written.

⁸And the vision was shown to me thus: Behold, in the vision clouds invited me and a mist summoned me, and the course of the stars and the lightnings sped and hastened me, and the winds in the vision caused me to fly and lifted me upward, and bore me into heaven.

⁹And I went in till I drew nigh to a wall which is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of fire: and it began to affright me. And I went into the tongues of fire and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals: and the walls of the house were like a tesselated floor (made) of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal.

¹¹Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between them were fiery cherubim, and their heaven was (clear as) water.

¹²A flaming fire surrounded the walls, and its portals blazed with fire.

¹³And I entered into that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice: there were no delights of life therein: fear covered me, and trembling got hold upon me.

¹⁴And as I quaked and trembled, I fell upon my face.

¹⁵And I beheld a vision, And lo! there was a second house, greater than the former, and the entire portal stood open before me, and it was built of flames of fire.

¹⁶And in every respect it so excelled in splendour and magnificence and extent that I cannot describe to you its splendour and its extent.

¹⁷And its floor was of fire, and above it were lightnings and the path of the stars, and its ceiling also was flaming fire.

¹⁸And I looked and saw therein a lofty throne: its appearance was as crystal, and the wheels thereof as the shining sun, and there was the vision of cherubim.

¹⁹And from underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon.

²⁰And the Great Glory sat thereon, and His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow.

²¹None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold Him.

²²The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him, and none around could draw nigh Him: ten thousand times ten thousand (stood) before Him, yet He needed no counselor.

²³And the most holy ones who were nigh to Him did not leave by night nor depart from Him.

²⁴And until then I had been prostrate on my face, trembling: and the Lord called me with His own mouth, and said to me: 'Come hither, Enoch, and hear my word.'

²⁵And one of the holy ones came to me and waked me, and He made me rise up and approach the door: and I bowed my face downwards.

Chapter 15

¹And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: 'Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice.

²And go, say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them: "You should intercede" for men, and not men for you:

³Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons?

⁴And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish.

⁵Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth.

⁶But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world.

⁷And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.

⁸And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.

⁹Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men, and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.

¹⁰As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.

¹¹And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.

Chapter 16

¹From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants, from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgement—thus shall they destroy until the day of the consummation, the great judgement in which the age shall be consummated, over the Watchers and the godless, yea, shall be wholly consummated."

²And now as to the Watchers who have sent thee to intercede for them, who had been aforetime in heaven, (say to them): "You have been in heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones, and these in the hardness of your hearts you have made known to the women, and through these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth."

⁴Say to them therefore: "You have no peace."'

Chapter 17

¹And they took and brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire, and, when they wished, they appeared as men.

²And they brought me to the place of darkness, and to a mountain the point of whose summit reached to heaven.

³And I saw the places of the luminaries and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder and in the uttermost depths, where were a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lightnings.

⁴And they took me to the living waters, and to the fire of the west, which receives every setting of the sun.

⁵And I came to a river of fire in which the fire flows like water and discharges itself into the great sea towards the west.

⁶I saw the great rivers and came to the great river and to the great darkness, and went to the place where no flesh walks.

⁷I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter and the place whence all the waters of the deep flow.

⁸I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep.

Chapter 18

¹I saw the treasuries of all the winds: I saw how He had furnished with them the whole creation and the firm foundations of the earth.

²And I saw the corner-stone of the earth: I saw the four winds which bear the earth and the firmament of the heaven.

³And I saw how the winds stretch out the vaults of heaven, and have their station between heaven and earth: these are the pillars of the heaven.

⁴I saw the winds of heaven which turn and bring the circumference of the sun and all the stars to their setting.

⁵I saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds: I saw the paths of the angels. I saw at the end of the earth the firmament of the heaven above. And I proceeded and saw a place which burns day and night, where there are seven mountains of magnificent stones, three towards the east, and three towards the south.

⁷And as for those towards the east, one was of coloured stone, and one of pearl, and one of jacinth, and those towards the south of red stone.

⁸But the middle one reached to heaven like the throne of God, of alabaster, and the summit of the throne was of sapphire.

⁹And I saw a flaming fire. And beyond these mountains

¹⁰is a region the end of the great earth: there the heavens were completed.

¹¹And I saw a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them I saw columns of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike towards the height and towards the depth.

¹²And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it: there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place.

¹³I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired regarding them,

¹⁴The angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven.

¹⁵And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times.

¹⁶And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated (even) for ten thousand years.'

Chapter 19

¹And Uriel said to me: 'Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, (here shall they stand,) till the day of the great judgement in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of.

²And the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens.'

³And I, Enoch, alone saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen.

Chapter 20

¹And these are the names of the holy angels who watch.

²Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus.

³Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men.

⁴Raguel, one of the holy angels who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries.

⁵Michael, one of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over chaos.

⁶Saraqâêl, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit.

⁷Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim.

⁸Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise.

Chapter 21

¹And I proceeded to where things were chaotic.

²And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible.

³And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire.

⁴Then I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?'

⁵Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth?

⁶These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.'

⁷And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture.

⁸Then I said: 'How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!'

⁹Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?' And I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.'

¹⁰And he said unto me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'

Chapter 22

¹And thence I went to another place, and he showed me in the west another great and high mountain and of hard rock.
[E]

²And there was in it four hollow places, deep and wide and very smooth. How smooth are the hollow places and deep and dark to look at.
[Gg]

²And there were four hollow places in it, deep and very smooth: three of them were dark and one bright; and there was a fountain of water in its midst. And I said: 'How smooth are these hollow places, and deep and dark to view.'

³Then Raphael answered, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein, yea that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here. And these places have been made to receive them till the day of their judgement and till their appointed period ⌈till the period appointed⌉, till the great judgement (comes) upon them.'
[E]

⁵I saw the spirits of the children of men who were dead, and their voice went forth to heaven and made suit.

⁶Then I asked Raphael the angel who was with me, and I said unto him: 'This spirit—whose is it whose voice goeth forth and maketh suit?'
[Gg]

⁵I saw (the spirit of) a dead man making suit, and his voice went forth to heaven and made suit.

⁶And I asked Raphael the angel who was with me, and I said unto him: 'This spirit which maketh suit, whose is it, whose voice goeth forth and maketh suit to heaven?'

⁷And he answered me saying: 'This is the spirit which went forth from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, and he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth, and his seed is annihilated from amongst the seed of men.'
[E]

⁸Then I asked regarding it, and regarding all the hollow places: 'Why is one separated from the other?'

⁹And he answered me and said unto me: 'These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made for the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.

¹⁰And such has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgement has not been executed on them in their lifetime.

¹¹Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain till the great day of judgement and punishment and torment of those who curse for ever, and retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them for ever.

¹²And such a division has been made for the spirits of those who make their suit, who make disclosures concerning their destruction, when they were slain in the days of the sinners.

¹³Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and of the transgressors. they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgement nor shall they be raised from thence.

¹⁴Then I blessed the Lord of glory and said: 'Blessed be my Lord, the Lord of righteousness, who ruleth for ever.'
[Gg]

⁸Then I asked regarding all the hollow places: 'Why is one separated from the other?'

⁹And he answered me saying: 'These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And this division has been made for the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.

¹⁰And this has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgement has not been executed upon them in their lifetime.

¹¹Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain, till the great day of judgement, scourgings, and torments of the accursed for ever, so that (there maybe) retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them for ever.

¹²And this division has been made for the spirits of those who make their suit, who make disclosures concerning their destruction, when they were slain in the days of the sinners.

¹³And this has been made for the spirits of men who shall not be righteous but sinners, who are godless, and of the lawless they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be punished in the day of judgement nor shall they be raised from thence.

¹⁴Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and said: 'Blessed art Thou, Lord of righteousness, who rulest over the world.'

Chapter 23

¹From thence I went to another place to the west of the ends of the earth.

²And I saw a burning fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night but (ran) regularly.

³And I asked saying: 'What is this which rests not?'

⁴Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said unto me: 'This course of fire which thou hast seen is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.'

Chapter 24

¹And from thence I went to another place of the earth, and he showed me a mountain range of fire which burnt day and night.

²And I went beyond it and saw seven magnificent mountains all differing each from the other, and the stones (thereof) were magnificent and beautiful, magnificent as a whole, of glorious appearance and fair exterior: three towards the east, one founded on the other, and three towards the south, one upon the other, and deep rough ravines, no one of which joined with any other.

³And the seventh mountain was in the midst of these, and it excelled them in height, resembling the seat of a throne: and fragrant trees encircled the throne.

⁴And amongst them was a tree such as I had never yet smelt, neither was any amongst them nor were others like it: it had a fragrance beyond all fragrance, and its leaves and blooms and wood wither not for ever: and its fruit is beautiful, and its fruit resembles the dates of a palm.

⁵Then I said: 'How beautiful is this tree, and fragrant, and its leaves are fair, and its blooms very delightful in appearance.'

⁶Then answered Michael, one of the holy and honoured angels who was with me, and was their leader.

Chapter 25

¹And he said unto me: 'Enoch, why dost thou ask me regarding the fragrance of the tree, and why dost thou wish to learn the truth?' Then I answered him saying: 'I wish to know about everything, but especially about this tree.' And he answered saying: 'This high mountain which thou hast seen, whose summit is like the throne of God, is His throne, where the Holy Great One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit, when He shall come down to visit the earth with goodness.

⁴And as for this fragrant tree no mortal is permitted to touch it till the great judgement, when He shall take vengeance on all and bring (everything) to its consummation for ever. It shall then be given to the righteous and holy.

⁵Its fruit shall be for food to the elect: it shall be transplanted to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King.

⁶Then shall they rejoice with joy and be glad,
And into the holy place shall they enter;
And its fragrance shall be in their bones,
And they shall live a long life on earth,
Such as thy fathers lived:
And in their days shall no sorrow or plague
Or torment or calamity touch them.'

⁷Then blessed I the God of Glory, the Eternal King, who hath prepared such things for the righteous, and hath created them and promised to give to them.

Chapter 26

¹And I went from thence to the middle of the earth, and I saw a blessed place in which there were trees with branches abiding and blooming of a dismembered tree.

²And there I saw a holy mountain, and underneath the mountain to the east there was a stream and it flowed towards the south.

³And I saw towards the east another mountain higher than this, and between them a deep and narrow ravine: in it also ran a stream underneath the mountain.

⁴And to the west thereof there was another mountain, lower than the former and of small elevation, and a ravine deep and dry between them: and another deep and dry ravine was at the extremities of the three mountains.

⁵And all the ravines were deep and narrow, (being formed) of hard rock, and trees were not planted upon them.

⁶And I marvelled at the rocks, and I marvelled at the ravine, yea, I marvelled very much.

Chapter 27

¹Then said I: 'For what object is this blessed land, which is entirely filled with trees, and this accursed valley between?'

²Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered and said: 'This accursed valley is for those who are accursed for ever: here shall all the accursed be gathered together who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words and of His glory speak hard things.
[E]
Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be their place of judgement.

³In the last days there shall be upon them the spectacle of righteous judgement in the presence of the righteous for ever: here shall the merciful bless the Lord of glory, the Eternal King.
[Gg]
Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be the place of their habitation.

³In the last times, in the days of the true judgement in the presence of the righteous for ever: here shall the godly bless the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King.

⁴In the days of judgement over the former, they shall bless Him for the mercy in accordance with which He has assigned them (their lot).'

⁵Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and set forth His glory and lauded Him gloriously.

Chapter 28

¹And thence I went towards the east, into the midst of the mountain range of the desert, and I saw a wilderness and it was solitary, full of trees and plants.

²And water gushed forth from above.

³Rushing like a copious watercourse which flowed towards the north-west it caused clouds and dew to ascend on every side.

Chapter 29

¹And thence I went to another place in the desert, and approached to the east of this mountain range.

²And there I saw aromatic trees exhaling the fragrance of frankincense and myrrh, and the trees also were similar to the almond tree.

Chapter 30

¹.And beyond these, I went afar to the east, and I saw another place, a valley (full) of water.

²And therein there was a tree, the colour (?) of fragrant trees such as the mastic.

³And on the sides of those valleys I saw fragrant cinnamon. And beyond these I proceeded to the east.

Chapter 31

¹And I saw other mountains, and amongst them were ⌈groves of⌉ trees, and there flowed forth from them nectar, which is named sarara and galbanum.

²And beyond these mountains I saw another mountain to the east of the ends of the earth, whereon were aloe trees, and all the trees were full of stacte, being like almond-trees.

³And when one burnt it, it smelt sweeter than any fragrant odour.
[E]

Chapter 32

¹And after these fragrant odours, as I looked towards the north over the mountains I saw seven mountains full of choice nard and fragrant trees and cinnamon and pepper.
[Gg]

¹To the north-east I beheld seven mountains full of choice nard and mastic and cinnamon and pepper.

²And thence I went over the summits of all these mountains, far towards the east ⌈of the earth⌉, and passed above the Erythraean sea and went far from it, and passed over the angel Zotîêl.
[E]

³And I came to the Garden of Righteousness, and saw beyond those trees many large trees growing there and of goodly fragrance, large, very beautiful and glorious, and the tree of wisdom whereof they eat and know great wisdom.
[Gg]

³And I came to the Garden of Righteousness, and from afar off trees more numerous than these trees and great—two trees there, very great, beautiful, and glorious, and magnificent, and the tree of knowledge, whose holy fruit they eat and know great wisdom.

⁴That tree is in height like the fir, and its leaves are like (those of) the Carob tree: and its fruit is like the clusters of the vine, very beautiful: and the fragrance of the tree penetrates afar.

⁵Then I said: 'How beautiful is the tree, and how attractive is its look!'

⁶Then Raphael the holy angel, who was with me, answered me and said: 'This is the tree of wisdom, of which thy father old (in years) and thy aged mother, who were before thee, have eaten, and they learnt wisdom and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked and they were driven out of the garden.'

Chapter 33

¹And from thence I went to the ends of the earth and saw there great beasts, and each differed from the other; and (I saw) birds also differing in appearance and beauty and voice, the one differing from the other.

²And to the east of those beasts I saw the ends of the earth whereon the heaven rests, and the portals of the heaven open.

³And I saw how the stars of heaven come forth, and I counted the portals out of which they proceed, and wrote down all their outlets, of each individual star by itself, according to their number and their names, their courses and their positions, and their times and their months, as Uriel the holy angel who was with me showed me.

⁴He showed all things to me and wrote them down for me: also their names he wrote for me, and their laws and their companies.

Chapter 34

¹And from thence I went towards the north to the ends of the earth, and there I saw a great and glorious device at the ends of the whole earth.

²And here I saw three portals of heaven open in the heaven: through each of them proceed north winds: when they blow there is cold, hail, frost, snow, dew, and rain.

³And out of one portal they blow for good: but when they blow through the other two portals, it is with violence and affliction on the earth, and they blow with violence.

Chapter 35

¹And from thence I went towards the west to the ends of the earth, and saw there three portals of the heaven open such as I had seen in the east, the same number of portals, and the same number of outlets.

Chapter 36

¹And from thence I went to the south to the ends of the earth, and saw there three open portals of the heaven: and thence there come dew, rain, and wind.

²And from thence I went to the east to the ends of the heaven, and saw here the three eastern portals of heaven open and small portals above them.

³Through each of these small portals pass the stars of heaven and run their course to the west on the path which is shown to them.

⁴And as often as I saw I blessed always the Lord of Glory, and I continued to bless the Lord of Glory who has wrought great and glorious wonders, to show the greatness of His work to the angels and to spirits and to men, that they might praise His work and all His creation: that they might see the work of His might and praise the great work of His hands and bless Him for ever.

The Parables

Chapter 37

¹The second vision which he saw, the vision of wisdom—which Enoch the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, saw.

²And this is the beginning of the words of wisdom which I lifted up my voice to speak and say to those which dwell on earth: Hear, ye men of old time, and see, ye that come after, the words of the Holy One which I will speak before the Lord of Spirits.

³It were better to declare (them only) to the men of old time, but even from those that come after we will not withhold the beginning of wisdom.

⁴Till the present day such wisdom has never been given by the Lord of Spirits as I have received according to my insight, according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits by whom the lot of eternal life has been given to me.

⁵Now three parables were imparted to me, and I lifted up my voice and recounted them to those that dwell on the earth.

Chapter 38

¹The First Parable.
When the congregation of the righteous shall appear,
And sinners shall be judged for their sins,
And shall be driven from the face of the earth:

²And when the Righteous One shall appear before the eyes of the righteous,
Whose elect works hang upon the Lord of Spirits,
And light shall appear to the righteous and the elect who dwell on the earth,
Where then will be the dwelling of the sinners,
And where the resting-place of those who have denied the Lord of Spirits?
It had been good for them if they had not been born.

³When the secrets of the righteous shall be revealed and the sinners judged,
And the godless driven from the presence of the righteous and elect,

⁴From that time those that possess the earth shall no longer be powerful and exalted:
And they shall not be able to behold the face of the holy,
For the Lord of Spirits has caused His light to appear
On the face of the holy, righteous, and elect.

⁵Then shall the kings and the mighty perish
And be given into the hands of the righteous and holy.

⁶And thenceforward none shall seek for themselves mercy from the Lord of Spirits
For their life is at an end.

Chapter 39

¹And it shall come to pass in those days that elect and holy children will descend from the high heaven, and their seed will become one with the children of men.

²And in those days Enoch received books of zeal and wrath, and books of disquiet and expulsion.
And mercy shall not be accorded to them, saith the Lord of Spirits.

³And in those days a whirlwind carried me off from the earth,
And set me down at the end of the heavens.

⁴And there I saw another vision, the dwelling-places of the holy,
And the resting-places of the righteous.

⁵Here mine eyes saw their dwellings with His righteous angels,
And their resting-places with the holy.
And they petitioned and interceded and prayed for the children of men,
And righteousness flowed before them as water,
And mercy like dew upon the earth:
Thus it is amongst them for ever and ever.
6a And in that place mine eyes saw the Elect One of righteousness and of faith,
7a And I saw his dwelling-place under the wings of the Lord of Spirits.
6b And righteousness shall prevail in his days,
And the righteous and elect shall be without number before Him for ever and ever.
7b And all the righteous and elect before Him shall be strong as fiery lights,
And their mouth shall be full of blessing,
And their lips extol the name of the Lord of Spirits,
And righteousness before Him shall never fail,
And uprightness shall never fail before Him.

⁸There I wished to dwell,
And my spirit longed for that dwelling-place:
And there heretofore hath been my portion,
For so has it been established concerning me before the Lord of Spirits.

⁹In those days I praised and extolled the name of the Lord of Spirits with blessings and praises, because He hath destined me for blessing and glory according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits.

¹⁰For a long time my eyes regarded that place, and I blessed Him and praised Him, saying: 'Blessed is He, and may He be blessed from the beginning and for evermore.

¹¹And before Him there is no ceasing. He knows before the world was created what is for ever and what will be from generation unto generation.

¹²Those who sleep not bless Thee: they stand before Thy glory and bless, praise, and extol, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Spirits: He filleth the earth with spirits."'

¹³And here my eyes saw all those who sleep not: they stand before Him and bless and say: 'Blessed be Thou, and blessed be the name of the Lord for ever and ever.'

¹⁴And my face was changed; for I could no longer behold.

Chapter 40

¹And after that I saw thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, I saw a multitude beyond number and reckoning, who stood before the Lord of Spirits.

²And on the four sides of the Lord of Spirits I saw four presences, different from those that sleep not, and I learnt their names: for the angel that went with me made known to me their names, and showed me all the hidden things.

³And I heard the voices of those four presences as they uttered praises before the Lord of glory.

⁴The first voice blesses the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever.

⁵And the second voice I heard blessing the Elect One and the elect ones who hang upon the Lord of Spirits.

⁶And the third voice I heard pray and intercede for those who dwell on the earth and supplicate in the name of the Lord of Spirits.

⁷And I heard the fourth voice fending off the Satans and forbidding them to come before the Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on the earth.

⁸After that I asked the angel of peace who went with me, who showed me everything that is hidden: 'Who are these four presences which I have seen and whose words I have heard and written down?'

⁹And he said to me: 'This first is Michael, the merciful and long-suffering: and the second, who is set over all the diseases and all the wounds of the children of men, is Raphael: and the third, who is set over all the powers, is Gabriel: and the fourth, who is set over the repentance unto hope of those who inherit eternal life, is named Phanuel.' And these are the four angels of the Lord of Spirits and the four voices I heard in those days.

Chapter 41

¹And after that I saw all the secrets of the heavens, and how the kingdom is divided, and how the actions of men are weighed in the balance.

²And there I saw the mansions of the elect and the mansions of the holy, and mine eyes saw there all the sinners being driven from thence which deny the name of the Lord of Spirits, and being dragged off: and they could not abide because of the punishment which proceeds from the Lord of Spirits.

³And there mine eyes saw the secrets of the lightning and of the thunder, and the secrets of the winds, how they are divided to blow over the earth, and the secrets of the clouds and dew, and there I saw from whence they proceed in that place and from whence they saturate the dusty earth.

⁴And there I saw closed chambers out of which the winds are divided, the chamber of the hail and winds, the chamber of the mist, and of the clouds, and the cloud thereof hovers over the earth from the beginning of the world.

⁵And I saw the chambers of the sun and moon, whence they proceed and whither they come again, and their glorious return, and how one is superior to the other, and their stately orbit, and how they do not leave their orbit, and they add nothing to their orbit and they take nothing from it, and they keep faith with each other, in accordance with the oath by which they are bound together.

⁶And first the sun goes forth and traverses his path according to the commandment of the Lord of Spirits, and mighty is His name for ever and ever.

⁷And after that I saw the hidden and the visible path of the moon, and she accomplishes the course of her path in that place by day and by night—the one holding a position opposite to the other before the Lord of Spirits.
And they give thanks and praise and rest not;
For unto them is their thanksgiving rest.

⁸For the sun changes oft for a blessing or a curse,
And the course of the path of the moon is light to the righteous
And darkness to the sinners in the name of the Lord,
Who made a separation between the light and the darkness,
And divided the spirits of men,
And strengthened the spirits of the righteous,
In the name of His righteousness.

⁹For no angel hinders and no power is able to hinder; for He appoints a judge for them all and He judges them all before Him.

Chapter 42

¹Wisdom found no place where she might dwell;
Then a dwelling-place was assigned her in the heavens.

²Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling among the children of men,
And found no dwelling-place:
Wisdom returned to her place,
And took her seat among the angels.

³And unrighteousness went forth from her chambers:
Whom she sought not she found,
And dwelt with them,
As rain in a desert
And dew on a thirsty land.

Chapter 43

¹And I saw other lightnings and the stars of heaven, and I saw how He called them all by their names and they hearkened unto Him.

²And I saw how they are weighed in a righteous balance according to their proportions of light: (I saw) the width of their spaces and the day of their appearing, and how their revolution produces lightning: and (I saw) their revolution according to the number of the angels, and (how) they keep faith with each other.

³And I asked the angel who went with me who showed me what was hidden: 'What are these?'

⁴And he said to me: 'The Lord of Spirits hath showed thee their parabolic meaning (lit. 'their parable'): these are the names of the holy who dwell on the earth and believe in the name of the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever.'

Chapter 44

[Chapter 44 is a single verse on the lightnings and the stars. It is absent from the digital transcription used for this edition and has not been supplied from memory. It can be read in any printed edition of Charles.]

Chapter 45

¹And this is the Second Parable concerning those who deny the name of the dwelling of the holy ones and the Lord of Spirits.

²And into the heaven they shall not ascend,
And on the earth they shall not come:
Such shall be the lot of the sinners
Who have denied the name of the Lord of Spirits,
Who are thus preserved for the day of suffering and tribulation.

³On that day Mine Elect One shall sit on the throne of glory
And shall try their works,
And their places of rest shall be innumerable.
And their souls shall grow strong within them when they see Mine Elect Ones,
And those who have called upon My glorious name:

⁴Then will I cause Mine Elect One to dwell among them.
And I will transform the heaven and make it an eternal blessing and light,

⁵And I will transform the earth and make it a blessing:
And I will cause Mine elect ones to dwell upon it:
But the sinners and evil-doers shall not set foot thereon.

⁶For I have provided and satisfied with peace My righteous ones
And have caused them to dwell before Me:
But for the sinners there is judgement impending with Me,
So that I shall destroy them from the face of the earth.

Chapter 46

¹And there I saw One who had a head of days,
And His head was white like wool,
And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man,
And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.

²And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the Head of Days?

³And he answered and said unto me:
This is the son of Man who hath righteousness,
With whom dwelleth righteousness,
And who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden,
Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him,
And whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever.

⁵And he shall put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms
Because they do not extol and praise Him,
Nor humbly acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them.

⁶And he shall put down the countenance of the strong,
And shall fill them with shame.
And darkness shall be their dwelling,
And worms shall be their bed,
And they shall have no hope of rising from their beds,
Because they do not extol the name of the Lord of Spirits.

⁷And these are they who judge the stars of heaven,
And raise their hands against the Most High,
And tread upon the earth and dwell upon it.
And all their deeds manifest unrighteousness,
And their power rests upon their riches,
And their faith is in the gods which they have made with their hands,
And they deny the name of the Lord of Spirits,

⁸And they persecute the houses of His congregations,
And the faithful who hang upon the name of the Lord of Spirits.

Chapter 47

¹And in those days shall have ascended the prayer of the righteous,
And the blood of the righteous from the earth before the Lord of Spirits.

²In those days the holy ones who dwell above in the heavens
Shall unite with one voice
And supplicate and pray and praise,
And give thanks and bless the name of the Lord of Spirits
On behalf of the blood of the righteous which has been shed,
And that the prayer of the righteous may not be in vain before the Lord of Spirits,
That judgement may be done unto them,
And that they may not have to suffer for ever.

³In those days I saw the Head of Days when He seated himself upon the throne of His glory,
And the books of the living were opened before Him:
And all His host which is in heaven above and His counselors stood before Him,

⁴And the hearts of the holy were filled with joy;
Because the number of the righteous had been offered,
And the prayer of the righteous had been heard,
And the blood of the righteous been required before the Lord of Spirits.

Chapter 48

¹And in that place I saw the fountain of righteousness
Which was inexhaustible:
And around it were many fountains of wisdom;
And all the thirsty drank of them,
And were filled with wisdom,
And their dwellings were with the righteous and holy and elect.

²And at that hour that Son of Man was named
In the presence of the Lord of Spirits,
And his name before the Head of Days.

³Yea, before the sun and the signs were created,
Before the stars of the heaven were made,
His name was named before the Lord of Spirits.

⁴He shall be a staff to the righteous whereon to stay themselves and not fall,
And he shall be the light of the Gentiles,
And the hope of those who are troubled of heart.

⁵All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him,
And will praise and bless and celebrate with song the Lord of Spirits.

⁶And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before Him,
Before the creation of the world and for evermore.

⁷And the wisdom of the Lord of Spirits hath revealed him to the holy and righteous;
For he hath preserved the lot of the righteous,
Because they have hated and despised this world of unrighteousness,
And have hated all its works and ways in the name of the Lord of Spirits:
For in his name they are saved,
And according to his good pleasure hath it been in regard to their life.

⁸In these days downcast in countenance shall the kings of the earth have become,
And the strong who possess the land because of the works of their hands;
For on the day of their anguish and affliction they shall not (be able to) save themselves,

⁹And I will give them over into the hands of Mine elect:
As straw in the fire so shall they burn before the face of the holy:
As lead in the water shall they sink before the face of the righteous,
And no trace of them shall any more be found.

¹⁰And on the day of their affliction there shall be rest on the earth,
And before them they shall fall and not rise again:
And there shall be no one to take them with his hands and raise them:
For they have denied the Lord of Spirits and His Anointed.
The name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed.

Chapter 49

¹For wisdom is poured out like water,
And glory faileth not before him for evermore.

²For he is mighty in all the secrets of righteousness,
And unrighteousness shall disappear as a shadow,
And have no continuance;
Because the Elect One standeth before the Lord of Spirits,
And his glory is for ever and ever,
And his might unto all generations.

³And in him dwells the spirit of wisdom,
And the spirit which gives insight,
And the spirit of understanding and of might,
And the spirit of those who have fallen asleep in righteousness.

⁴And he shall judge the secret things,
And none shall be able to utter a lying word before him;
For he is the Elect One before the Lord of Spirits according to His good pleasure.

Chapter 50

¹And in those days a change shall take place for the holy and elect,
And the light of days shall abide upon them,
And glory and honour shall turn to the holy,

²On the day of affliction on which evil shall have been treasured up against the sinners.
And the righteous shall be victorious in the name of the Lord of Spirits:
And He will cause the others to witness (this)
That they may repent
And forgo the works of their hands.

³They shall have no honour through the name of the Lord of Spirits,
Yet through His name shall they be saved,
And the Lord of Spirits will have compassion on them,
For His compassion is great.

⁴And He is righteous also in His judgement,
And in the presence of His glory unrighteousness also shall not maintain itself:
At His judgement the unrepentant shall perish before Him.

⁵And from henceforth I will have no mercy on them, saith the Lord of Spirits.

Chapter 51

¹And in those days shall the earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it,
And Sheol also shall give back that which it has received,
And hell shall give back that which it owes.
5a For in those days the Elect One shall arise,

²And he shall choose the righteous and holy from among them:
For the day has drawn nigh that they should be saved.

³And the Elect One shall in those days sit on My throne,
And his mouth shall pour forth all the secrets of wisdom and counsel:
For the Lord of Spirits hath given (them) to him and hath glorified him.

⁴And in those days shall the mountains leap like rams,
And the hills also shall skip like lambs satisfied with milk,
And the faces of all the angels in heaven shall be lighted up with joy.
5b And the earth shall rejoice,
c. And the righteous shall dwell upon it,
d. And the elect shall walk thereon.

Chapter 52

¹And after those days in that place where I had seen all the visions of that which is hidden—for I had been carried off in a whirlwind and they had borne me towards the west—

²There mine eyes saw all the secret things of heaven that shall be, a mountain of iron, and a mountain of copper, and a mountain of silver, and a mountain of gold, and a mountain of soft metal, and a mountain of lead.

³And I asked the angel who went with me, saying, 'What things are these which I have seen in secret?'

⁴And he said unto me: 'All these things which thou hast seen shall serve the dominion of His Anointed that he may be potent and mighty on the earth.'

⁵And that angel of peace answered, saying unto me: 'Wait a little, and there shall be revealed unto thee all the secret things which surround the Lord of Spirits.

⁶And these mountains which thine eyes have seen,
The mountain of iron, and the mountain of copper, and the mountain of silver,
And the mountain of gold, and the mountain of soft metal, and the mountain of lead,
All these shall be in the presence of the Elect One
As wax before the fire,
And like the water which streams down from above upon those mountains,
And they shall become powerless before his feet.

⁷And it shall come to pass in those days that none shall be saved,
Either by gold or by silver,
And none be able to escape.

⁸And there shall be no iron for war,
Nor shall one clothe oneself with a breastplate.
Bronze shall be of no service,
And tin shall be of no service and shall not be esteemed,
And lead shall not be desired.

⁹And all these things shall be denied and destroyed from the surface of the earth,
When the Elect One shall appear before the face of the Lord of Spirits.'

Chapter 53

¹There mine eyes saw a deep valley with open mouths, and all who dwell on the earth and sea and islands shall bring to him gifts and presents and tokens of homage, but that deep valley shall not become full.

²And their hands commit lawless deeds,
And the sinners devour all whom they lawlessly oppress:
Yet the sinners shall be destroyed before the face of the Lord of Spirits,
And they shall be banished from off the face of His earth,
And they shall perish for ever and ever.

³For I saw all the angels of punishment abiding (there) and preparing all the instruments of Satan.

⁴And I asked the angel of peace who went with me: 'For whom are they preparing these instruments?'

⁵And he said unto me: 'They prepare these for the kings and the mighty of this earth, that they may thereby be destroyed.

⁶And after this the Righteous and Elect One shall cause the house of his congregation to appear: henceforth they shall be no more hindered in the name of the Lord of Spirits.

⁷And these mountains shall not stand as the earth before his righteousness,
But the hills shall be as a fountain of water,
And the righteous shall have rest from the oppression of sinners.'

Chapter 54

¹And I looked and turned to another part of the earth, and saw there a deep valley with burning fire.

²And they brought the kings and the mighty, and began to cast them into this deep valley.

³And there mine eyes saw how they made these their instruments, iron chains of immeasurable weight.

⁴And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: 'For whom are these chains being prepared?'

⁵And he said unto me: 'These are being prepared for the hosts of Azâzêl, so that they may take them and cast them into the abyss of complete condemnation, and they shall cover their jaws with rough stones as the Lord of Spirits commanded.

⁶And Michael, and Gabriel, and Raphael, and Phanuel shall take hold of them on that great day, and cast them on that day into the burning furnace, that the Lord of Spirits may take vengeance on them for their unrighteousness in becoming subject to Satan and leading astray those who dwell on the earth.'

⁷'And in those days shall punishment come from the Lord of Spirits, and he will open all the chambers of waters which are above the heavens, and of the fountains which are beneath the earth.

⁸And all the waters shall be joined with the waters: that which is above the heavens is the masculine, and the water which is beneath the earth is the feminine.

⁹And they shall destroy all who dwell on the earth and those who dwell under the ends of the heaven.

¹⁰And when they have recognized their unrighteousness which they have wrought on the earth, then by these shall they perish.

Chapter 55

¹And after that the Head of Days repented and said: 'In vain have I destroyed all who dwell on the earth.'

²And He sware by His great name: 'Henceforth I will not do so to all who dwell on the earth, and I will set a sign in the heaven: and this shall be a pledge of good faith between Me and them for ever, so long as heaven is above the earth. And this is in accordance with My command.'

³When I have desired to take hold of them by the hand of the angels on the day of tribulation and pain because of this, I will cause My chastisement and My wrath to abide upon them, saith God, the Lord of Spirits.

⁴Ye mighty kings who dwell on the earth, ye shall have to behold Mine Elect One, how he sits on the throne of glory and judges Azâzêl, and all his associates, and all his hosts in the name of the Lord of Spirits.'

Chapter 56

¹And I saw there the hosts of the angels of punishment going, and they held scourges and chains of iron and bronze.

²And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: 'To whom are these who hold the scourges going?'

³And he said unto me: 'To their elect and beloved ones, that they may be cast into the chasm of the abyss of the valley.

⁴And then that valley shall be filled with their elect and beloved,
And the days of their lives shall be at an end,
And the days of their leading astray shall not thenceforward be reckoned.

⁵And in those days the angels shall return
And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Medes:
They shall stir up the kings, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them,
And they shall rouse them from their thrones,
That they may break forth as lions from their lairs,
And as hungry wolves among their flocks.

⁶And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones,
And the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor and a highway:

⁷But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses.
And they shall begin to fight among themselves,
And their right hand shall be strong against themselves,
And a man shall not know his brother,
Nor a son his father or his mother,
Till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter,
And their punishment be not in vain.

⁸In those days Sheol shall open its jaws,
And they shall be swallowed up therein
And their destruction shall be at an end;
Sheol shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.'

Chapter 57

¹And it came to pass after this that I saw another host of wagons, and men riding thereon, and coming on the winds from the east, and from the west to the south.

²And the noise of their wagons was heard, and when this turmoil took place the holy ones from heaven remarked it, and the pillars of the earth were moved from their place, and the sound thereof was heard from the one end of heaven to the other, in one day.

³And they shall all fall down and worship the Lord of Spirits. And this is the end of the second Parable.

Chapter 58

¹And I began to speak the third Parable concerning the righteous and elect.

²Blessed are ye, ye righteous and elect,
For glorious shall be your lot.

³And the righteous shall be in the light of the sun,
And the elect in the light of eternal life:
The days of their life shall be unending,
And the days of the holy without number.

⁴And they shall seek the light and find righteousness with the Lord of Spirits:
There shall be peace to the righteous in the name of the Eternal Lord.

⁵And after this it shall be said to the holy in heaven
That they should seek out the secrets of righteousness, the heritage of faith:
For it has become bright as the sun upon earth,
And the darkness is past.

⁶And there shall be a light that never endeth,
And to a limit (lit. 'number') of days they shall not come,
For the darkness shall first have been destroyed,
And the light established before the Lord of Spirits
And the light of uprightness established for ever before the Lord of Spirits.

Chapter 59

¹In those days mine eyes saw the secrets of the lightnings, and of the lights, and the judgements they execute (lit. 'their judgement'): and they lighten for a blessing or a curse as the Lord of Spirits willeth.

²And there I saw the secrets of the thunder, and how when it resounds above in the heaven, the sound thereof is heard, and he caused me to see the judgements executed on the earth, whether they be for well-being and blessing, or for a curse according to the word of the Lord of Spirits.

³And after that all the secrets of the lights and lightnings were shown to me, and they lighten for blessing and for satisfying.

Chapter 60

¹In the year five hundred, in the seventh month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the life of Enoch. In that Parable I saw how a mighty quaking made the heaven of heavens to quake, and the host of the Most High, and the angels, a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, were disquieted with a great disquiet.

²And the Head of Days sat on the throne of His glory, and the angels and the righteous stood around Him.

³And a great trembling seized me,
And fear took hold of me,
And my loins gave way,
And dissolved were my reins,
And I fell upon my face.

⁴And Michael sent another angel from among the holy ones and he raised me up, and when he had raised me up my spirit returned; for I had not been able to endure the look of this host, and the commotion and the quaking of the heaven. And Michael said unto me: 'Why art thou disquieted with such a vision? Until this day lasted the day of His mercy; and He hath been merciful and long-suffering towards those who dwell on the earth.

⁶And when the day, and the power, and the punishment, and the judgement come, which the Lord of Spirits hath prepared for those who worship not the righteous law, and for those who deny the righteous judgement, and for those who take His name in vain—that day is prepared, for the elect a covenant, but for sinners an inquisition.

²⁵When the punishment of the Lord of Spirits shall rest upon them, it shall rest in order that the punishment of the Lord of Spirits may not come, in vain, and it shall slay the children with their mothers and the children with their fathers. Afterwards the judgement shall take place according to His mercy and His patience.'

⁷And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters.

⁸But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Dûidâin, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell, where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Spirits created.

⁹And I besought the other angel that he should show me the might of those monsters, how they were parted on one day and cast, the one into the abysses of the sea, and the other unto the dry land of the wilderness.

¹⁰And he said to me: 'Thou son of man, herein thou dost seek to know what is hidden.'

¹¹And the other angel who went with me and showed me what was hidden told me what is first and last in the heaven in the height, and beneath the earth in the depth, and at the ends of the heaven, and on the foundation of the heaven.

¹²And the chambers of the winds, and how the winds are divided, and how they are weighed, and (how) the portals of the winds are reckoned, each according to the power of the wind, and the power of the lights of the moon, and according to the power that is fitting: and the divisions of the stars according to their names, and how all the divisions are divided.

¹³And the thunders according to the places where they fall, and all the divisions that are made among the lightnings that it may lighten, and their host that they may at once obey.

¹⁴For the thunder has †places of rest† (which) are assigned (to it) while it is waiting for its peal; and the thunder and lightning are inseparable, and although not one and undivided, they both go together through the spirit and separate not.

¹⁵For when the lightning lightens, the thunder utters its voice, and the spirit enforces a pause during the peal, and divides equally between them; for the treasury of their peals is like the sand, and each one of them as it peals is held in with a bridle, and turned back by the power of the spirit, and pushed forward according to the many quarters of the earth. And the spirit of the sea is masculine and strong, and according to the might of his strength he draws it back with a rein, and in like manner it is driven forward and disperses amid all the mountains of the earth.

¹⁷And the spirit of the hoar-frost is his own angel, and the spirit of the hail is a good angel.

¹⁸And the spirit of the snow has forsaken his chambers on account of his strength—there is a special spirit therein, and that which ascends from it is like smoke, and its name is frost.

¹⁹And the spirit of the mist is not united with them in their chambers, but it has a special chamber; for its course is †glorious† both in light and in darkness, and in winter and in summer, and in its chamber is an angel.

²⁰And the spirit of the dew has its dwelling at the ends of the heaven, and is connected with the chambers of the rain, and its course is in winter and summer: and its clouds and the clouds of the mist are connected, and the one gives to the other.

²¹And when the spirit of the rain goes forth from its chamber, the angels come and open the chamber and lead it out, and when it is diffused over the whole earth it unites with the water on the earth. And whensoever it unites with the water on the earth . . .

²²For the waters are for those who dwell on the earth; for they are nourishment for the earth from the Most High who is in heaven: therefore there is a measure for the rain, and the angels take it in charge.

²³And these things I saw towards the Garden of the Righteous.

²⁴And the angel of peace who was with me said to me: 'These two monsters, prepared conformably to the greatness of God, shall feed . . .

Chapter 61

¹And I saw in those days how long cords were given to those angels, and they took to themselves wings and flew, and they went towards the north.

²And I asked the angel, saying unto him: 'Why have those (angels) taken these cords and gone off?' And he said unto me: 'They have gone to measure.'

³And the angel who went with me said unto me:
'These shall bring the measures of the righteous,
And the ropes of the righteous to the righteous,
That they may stay themselves on the name of the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever.

⁴The elect shall begin to dwell with the elect,
And those are the measures which shall be given to faith
And which shall strengthen righteousness.

⁵And these measures shall reveal all the secrets of the depths of the earth,
And those who have been destroyed by the desert,
And those who have been devoured by the beasts,
And those who have been devoured by the fish of the sea,
That they may return and stay themselves
On the day of the Elect One;
For none shall be destroyed before the Lord of Spirits,
And none can be destroyed.

⁶And all who dwell above in the heaven received a command and power and one voice and one light like unto fire.

⁷And that One (with) their first words they blessed,
And extolled and lauded with wisdom,
And they were wise in utterance and in the spirit of life.

⁸And the Lord of Spirits placed the Elect one on the throne of glory.
And he shall judge all the works of the holy above in the heaven,
And in the balance shall their deeds be weighed

⁹And when he shall lift up his countenance
To judge their secret ways according to the word of the name of the Lord of Spirits,
And their path according to the way of the righteous judgement of the Lord of Spirits,
Then shall they all with one voice speak and bless,
And glorify and extol and sanctify the name of the Lord of Spirits.

¹⁰And He will summon all the host of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the host of God, the Cherubin, Seraphin and Ophannin, and all the angels of power, and all the angels of principalities, and the Elect One, and the other powers on the earth (and) over the water.

¹¹On that day shall raise one voice, and bless and glorify and exalt in the spirit of faith, and in the spirit of wisdom, and in the spirit of patience, and in the spirit of mercy, and in the spirit of judgement and of peace, and in the spirit of goodness, and shall all say with one voice: "Blessed is He, and may the name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed for ever and ever."

¹²All who sleep not above in heaven shall bless Him:
All the holy ones who are in heaven shall bless Him,
And all the elect who dwell in the garden of life:
And every spirit of light who is able to bless, and glorify, and extol, and hallow Thy blessed name,
And all flesh shall beyond measure glorify and bless Thy name for ever and ever.

¹³For great is the mercy of the Lord of Spirits, and He is long-suffering,
And all His works and all that
He has created He has revealed to the righteous and elect
In the name of the Lord of Spirits.

Chapter 62

¹And thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, and said: 'Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ye are able to recognize the Elect One.'

²And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of His glory,
And the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him,
And the word of his mouth slays all the sinners,
And all the unrighteous are destroyed from before his face.

³And there shall stand up in that day all the kings and the mighty,
And the exalted and those who hold the earth,
And they shall see and recognize
How he sits on the throne of his glory,
And righteousness is judged before him,
And no lying word is spoken before him.

⁴Then shall pain come upon them as on a woman in travail,
And she has pain in bringing forth
When her child enters the mouth of the womb,
And she has pain in bringing forth.

⁵And one portion of them shall look on the other,
And they shall be terrified,
And they shall be downcast of countenance,
And pain shall seize them,
When they see that Son of Man
Sitting on the throne of his glory.

⁶And the kings and the mighty and all who possess the earth shall bless and glorify and extol him who rules over all, who was hidden.

⁷For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden,
And the Most High preserved him in the presence of His might,
And revealed him to the elect.

⁸And the congregation of the elect and holy shall be sown,
And all the elect shall stand before him on that day.

⁹And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth
Shall fall down before him on their faces,
And worship and set their hope upon that Son of Man,
And petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands.

¹⁰Nevertheless that Lord of Spirits will so press them
That they shall hastily go forth from His presence,
And their faces shall be filled with shame,
And the darkness grow deeper on their faces.

¹¹And He will deliver them to the angels for punishment,
To execute vengeance on them because they have oppressed His children and His elect

¹²And they shall be a spectacle for the righteous and for His elect:
They shall rejoice over them,
Because the wrath of the Lord of Spirits resteth upon them,
And His sword is drunk with their blood.

¹³And the righteous and elect shall be saved on that day,
And they shall never thenceforward see the face of the sinners and unrighteous.

¹⁴And the Lord of Spirits will abide over them,
And with that Son of Man shall they eat
And lie down and rise up for ever and ever.

¹⁵And the righteous and elect shall have risen from the earth,
And ceased to be of downcast countenance.

¹⁶And they shall have been clothed with garments of glory,
And these shall be the garments of life from the Lord of Spirits:
And your garments shall not grow old,
Nor your glory pass away before the Lord of Spirits.

Chapter 63

¹In those days shall the mighty and the kings who possess the earth implore (Him) to grant them a little respite from His angels of punishment to whom they were delivered, that they might fall down and worship before the Lord of Spirits, and confess their sins before Him.

²And they shall bless and glorify the Lord of Spirits, and say:
'Blessed is the Lord of Spirits and the Lord of kings,
And the Lord of the mighty and the Lord of the rich,
And the Lord of glory and the Lord of wisdom,

³And splendid in every secret thing is Thy power from generation to generation,
And Thy glory for ever and ever:
Deep are all Thy secrets and innumerable,
And Thy righteousness is beyond reckoning.

⁴We have now learnt that we should glorify
And bless the Lord of kings and Him who is king over all kings.'

⁵And they shall say:
'Would that we had rest to glorify and give thanks
And confess our faith before His glory!

⁶And now we long for a little rest but find it not:
We follow hard upon and obtain (it) not:
And light has vanished from before us,
And darkness is our dwelling-place for ever and ever:

⁷For we have not believed before Him
Nor glorified the name of the Lord of Spirits, nor glorified our Lord
But our hope was in the sceptre of our kingdom,
And in our glory.

⁸And in the day of our suffering and tribulation
He saves us not,
And we find no respite for confession
That our Lord is true in all His works, and in His judgements and His justice,
And His judgements have no respect of persons.

⁹And we pass away from before His face on account of our works,
And all our sins are reckoned up in righteousness.'

¹⁰Now they shall say unto themselves: 'Our souls are full of unrighteous gain, but it does not prevent us from descending from the midst thereof into the burden of Sheol.'

¹¹And after that their faces shall be filled with darkness
And shame before that Son of Man,
And they shall be driven from his presence,
And the sword shall abide before his face in their midst.

¹²Thus spake the Lord of Spirits: 'This is the ordinance and judgement with respect to the mighty and the kings and the exalted and those who possess the earth before the Lord of Spirits.'

Chapter 64

¹And other forms I saw hidden in that place.

²I heard the voice of the angel saying: 'These are the angels who descended to the earth, and revealed what was hidden to the children of men and seduced the children of men into committing sin.'

Chapter 65

¹And in those days Noah saw the earth that it had sunk down and its destruction was nigh.

²And he arose from thence and went to the ends of the earth, and cried aloud to his grandfather Enoch: and Noah said three times with an embittered voice: Hear me, hear me, hear me.'

³And I said unto him: 'Tell me what it is that is falling out on the earth that the earth is in such evil plight and shaken, lest perchance I shall perish with it?'

⁴And thereupon there was a great commotion on the earth, and a voice was heard from heaven, and I fell on my face.

⁵And Enoch my grandfather came and stood by me, and said unto me: 'Why hast thou cried unto me with a bitter cry and weeping?

⁶And a command has gone forth from the presence of the Lord concerning those who dwell on the earth that their ruin is accomplished because they have learnt all the secrets of the angels, and all the violence of the Satans, and all their powers—the most secret ones—and all the power of those who practice sorcery, and the power of witchcraft, and the power of those who make molten images for the whole earth:

⁷And how silver is produced from the dust of the earth, and how soft metal originates in the earth.

⁸For lead and tin are not produced from the earth like the first: it is a fountain that produces them, and an angel stands therein, and that angel is pre-eminent.'

⁹And after that my grandfather Enoch took hold of me by my hand and raised me up, and said unto me: 'Go, for I have asked the Lord of Spirits as touching this commotion on the earth.

¹⁰And He said unto me: "Because of their unrighteousness their judgement has been determined upon and shall not be withheld by Me for ever. Because of the sorceries which they have searched out and learnt, the earth and those who dwell upon it shall be destroyed."

¹¹And these—they have no place of repentance for ever, because they have shown them what was hidden, and they are the damned: but as for thee, my son, the Lord of Spirits knows that thou art pure, and guiltless of this reproach concerning the secrets.

¹²And He has destined thy name to be among the holy,
And will preserve thee amongst those who dwell on the earth,
And has destined thy righteous seed both for kingship and for great honours,
And from thy seed shall proceed a fountain of the righteous and holy without number for ever.

Chapter 66

¹And after that he showed me the angels of punishment who are prepared to come and let loose all the powers of the waters which are beneath in the earth in order to bring judgement and destruction on all who abide and dwell on the earth.

²And the Lord of Spirits gave commandment to the angels who were going forth, that they should not cause the waters to rise but should hold them in check; for those angels were over the powers of the waters.

³And I went away from the presence of Enoch.

Chapter 67

¹And in those days the word of God came unto me, and He said unto me: 'Noah, thy lot has come up before Me, a lot without blame, a lot of love and uprightness.

²And now the angels are making a wooden building, and when they have completed that task I will place My hand upon it and preserve it, and there shall come forth from it the seed of life, and a change shall set in so that the earth will not remain without inhabitant.

³And I will make fast thy seed before me for ever and ever, and I will spread abroad those who dwell with thee: it shall not be unfruitful on the face of the earth, but it shall be blessed and multiply on the earth in the name of the Lord.'

⁴And He will imprison those angels, who have shown unrighteousness, in that burning valley which my grandfather Enoch had formerly shown to me in the west among the mountains of gold and silver and iron and soft metal and tin.

⁵And I saw that valley in which there was a great convulsion and a convulsion of the waters.

⁶And when all this took place, from that fiery molten metal and from the convulsion thereof in that place, there was produced a smell of sulphur, and it was connected with those waters, and that valley of the angels who had led astray mankind burned beneath that land.

⁷And through its valleys proceed streams of fire, where these angels are punished who had led astray those who dwell upon the earth.

⁸But those waters shall in those days serve for the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, for the healing of the body, but for the punishment of the spirit; now their spirit is full of lust, that they may be punished in their body, for they have denied the Lord of Spirits and see their punishment daily, and yet believe not in His name.

⁹And in proportion as the burning of their bodies becomes severe, a corresponding change shall take place in their spirit for ever and ever; for before the Lord of Spirits none shall utter an idle word.

¹⁰For the judgement shall come upon them, because they believe in the lust of their body and deny the Spirit of the Lord.

¹¹And those same waters will undergo a change in those days; for when those angels are punished in these waters, these water-springs shall change their temperature, and when the angels ascend, this water of the springs shall change and become cold.

¹²And I heard Michael answering and saying: 'This judgement wherewith the angels are judged is a testimony for the kings and the mighty who possess the earth.'

¹³Because these waters of judgement minister to the healing of the body of the kings and the lust of their body; therefore they will not see and will not believe that those waters will change and become a fire which burns for ever.

Chapter 68

¹And after that my grandfather Enoch gave me the teaching of all the secrets in the book in the Parables which had been given to him, and he put them together for me in the words of the book of the Parables.

²And on that day Michael answered Raphael and said: 'The power of the spirit transports and makes me to tremble because of the severity of the judgement of the secrets, the judgement of the angels: who can endure the severe judgement which has been executed, and before which they melt away?'

³And Michael answered again, and said to Raphael: 'Who is he whose heart is not softened concerning it, and whose reins are not troubled by this word of judgement (that) has gone forth upon them because of those who have thus led them out?'

⁴And it came to pass when he stood before the Lord of Spirits, Michael said thus to Raphael: 'I will not take their part under the eye of the Lord; for the Lord of Spirits has been angry with them because they do as if they were the Lord. Therefore all that is hidden shall come upon them for ever and ever; for neither angel nor man shall have his portion (in it), but alone they have received their judgement for ever and ever.'

Chapter 69

¹And after this judgement they shall terrify and make them to tremble because they have shown this to those who dwell on the earth.

²And behold the names of those angels and these are their names: the first of them is Samjâzâ, the second Artâqîfâ, and the third Armên, the fourth Kôkabêl, the fifth Tûrâêl, the sixth Rûmjâl, the seventh Dânjâl, the eighth Nêqâêl, the ninth Barâqêl, the tenth Azâzêl, the eleventh Armârôs, the twelfth Batarjâl, the thirteenth Busasêjal, the fourteenth Hanânêl, the fifteenth Tûrêl, and the sixteenth Sîmâpêsîêl, the seventeenth Jetrêl, the eighteenth Tûmâêl, the nineteenth Tûrêl, the twentieth Rumâêl, the twenty-first Azâzêl.

³And these are the chiefs of their angels and their names, and their chief ones over hundreds and over fifties and over tens.

⁴The name of the first Jeqôn: that is, the one who led astray all the sons of God, and brought them down to the earth, and led them astray through the daughters of men.

⁵And the second was named Asbeêl: he imparted to the holy sons of God evil counsel, and led them astray so that they defiled their bodies with the daughters of men.

⁶And the third was named Gâdreêl: he it is who showed the children of men all the blows of death, and he led astray Eve, and showed the weapons of death to the sons of men the shield and the coat of mail, and the sword for battle, and all the weapons of death to the children of men.

⁷And from his hand they have proceeded against those who dwell on the earth from that day and for evermore.

⁸And the fourth was named Pênêmûe: he taught the children of men the bitter and the sweet, and he taught them all the secrets of their wisdom.

⁹And he instructed mankind in writing with ink and paper, and thereby many sinned from eternity to eternity and until this day.

¹⁰For men were not created for such a purpose, to give confirmation to their good faith with pen and ink.

¹¹For men were created exactly like the angels, to the intent that they should continue pure and righteous, and death, which destroys everything, could not have taken hold of them, but through this their knowledge they are perishing, and through this power it is consuming me.

¹²And the fifth was named Kâsdejâ: this is he who showed the children of men all the wicked smitings of spirits and demons, and the smitings of the embryo in the womb, that it may pass away, and the smitings of the soul the bites of the serpent, and the smitings which befall through the noontide heat, the son of the serpent named Tabââ‘ĕt.

¹³And this is the task of Kâsbeêl, the chief of the oath which he showed to the holy ones when he dwelt high above in glory, and its name is Bîqâ.

¹⁴This (angel) requested Michael to show him the hidden name, that he might enunciate it in the oath, so that those might quake before that name and oath who revealed all that was in secret to the children of men.

¹⁵And this is the power of this oath, for it is powerful and strong, and he placed this oath Akâe in the hand of Michael.

¹⁶And these are the secrets of this oath . . .
And they are strong through his oath:
And the heaven was suspended before the world was created,
And for ever.

¹⁷And through it the earth was founded upon the water,
And from the secret recesses of the mountains come beautiful waters,
From the creation of the world and unto eternity.

¹⁸And through that oath the sea was created,
And as its foundation He set for it the sand against the time of (its) anger,
And it dare not pass beyond it from the creation of the world unto eternity.

¹⁹And through that oath are the depths made fast,
And abide and stir not from their place from eternity to eternity.

²⁰And through that oath the sun and moon complete their course,
And deviate not from their ordinance from eternity to eternity.

²¹And through that oath the stars complete their course,
And He calls them by their names,
And they answer Him from eternity to eternity.

²²And in like manner the spirits of the water, and of the winds, and of all zephyrs, and (their) paths from all the quarters of the winds.

²³And there are preserved the voices of the thunder and the light of the lightnings: and there are preserved the chambers of the hail and the chambers of the hoarfrost, and the chambers of the mist, and the chambers of the rain and the dew.

²⁴And all these believe and give thanks before the Lord of Spirits, and glorify (Him) with all their power, and their food is in every act of thanksgiving: they thank and glorify and extol the name of the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever.

²⁵And this oath is mighty over them
And through it they are preserved and their paths are preserved,
And their course is not destroyed.
Close of the Third Parable.

²⁶And there was great joy amongst them,
And they blessed and glorified and extolled
Because the name of that Son of Man had been revealed unto them.

²⁷And he sat on the throne of his glory,
And the sum of judgement was given unto the Son of Man,
And he caused the sinners to pass away and be destroyed from off the face of the earth,
And those who have led the world astray.

²⁸With chains shall they be bound,
And in their assemblage-place of destruction shall they be imprisoned,
And all their works vanish from the face of the earth.

²⁹And from henceforth there shall be nothing corruptible;
For that Son of Man has appeared,
And has seated himself on the throne of his glory,
And all evil shall pass away before his face,
And the word of that Son of Man shall go forth
And be strong before the Lord of Spirits.
This is the Third Parable of Enoch.

Chapter 70

¹And it came to pass after this that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth.

²And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them.

³And from that day I was no longer numbered amongst them: and he set me between the two winds, between the North and the West, where the angels took the cords to measure for me the place for the elect and righteous.

⁴And there I saw the first fathers and the righteous who from the beginning dwell in that place.

Chapter 71

¹And it came to pass after this that my spirit was translated
And it ascended into the heavens:
And I saw the holy sons of God.
They were stepping on flames of fire:
Their garments were white and their raiment,
And their faces shone like snow.

²And I saw two streams of fire,
And the light of that fire shone like hyacinth,
And I fell on my face before the Lord of Spirits.

³And the angel Michael one of the archangels seized me by my right hand,
And lifted me up and led me forth into all the secrets,
And he showed me all the secrets of righteousness.

⁴And he showed me all the secrets of the ends of the heaven,
And all the chambers of all the stars, and all the luminaries,
Whence they proceed before the face of the holy ones.

⁵And he translated my spirit into the heaven of heavens,
And I saw there as it were a structure built of crystals,
And between those crystals tongues of living fire.

⁶And my spirit saw the girdle which girt that house of fire,
And on its four sides were streams full of living fire,
And they girt that house.

⁷And round about were Seraphin, Cherubic, and Ophannin:
And these are they who sleep not
And guard the throne of His glory.

⁸And I saw angels who could not be counted,
A thousand thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand,
Encircling that house.
And Michael, and Raphael, and Gabriel, and Phanuel,
And the holy angels who are above the heavens,
Go in and out of that house.

⁹And they came forth from that house,
And Michael and Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel,
And many holy angels without number.

¹⁰And with them the Head of Days,
His head white and pure as wool,
And His raiment indescribable.

¹¹And I fell on my face,
And my whole body became relaxed,
And my spirit was transfigured;
And I cried with a loud voice,
. . .with the spirit of power,
And blessed and glorified and extolled.

¹²And these blessings which went forth out of my mouth were well pleasing before that Head of Days.

¹³And that Head of Days came with Michael and Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel, thousands and ten thousands of angels without number.
[Lost passage wherein the Son of Man was described as accompanying the Head of Days, and Enoch asked one of the angels concerning the Son of Man as to who he was.]

¹⁴And he (i.e. the angel) came to me and greeted me with His voice, and said unto me:
'This is the Son of Man who is born unto righteousness;
And righteousness abides over him,
And the righteousness of the Head of Days forsakes him not.'

¹⁵And he said unto me: 'He proclaims unto thee peace in the name of the world to come;
For from hence has proceeded peace since the creation of the world,
And so shall it be unto thee for ever and for ever and ever.

¹⁶And all shall walk in his ways since righteousness never forsaketh him:
With him will be their dwelling-places, and with him their heritage,
And they shall not be separated from him for ever and ever and ever.

¹⁷And so there shall be length of days with that Son of Man,
And the righteous shall have peace and an upright way
In the name of the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever.'

The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries

Chapter 72

¹The book of the courses of the luminaries of the heaven, the relations of each, according to their classes, their dominion and their seasons, according to their names and places of origin, and according to their months, which Uriel, the holy angel, who was with me, who is their guide, showed me; and he showed me all their laws exactly as they are, and how it is with regard to all the years of the world and unto eternity, till the new creation is accomplished which dureth till eternity.

²And this is the first law of the luminaries: the luminary the Sun has its rising in the eastern portals of the heaven, and its setting in the western portals of the heaven.

³And I saw six portals in which the sun rises, and six portals in which the sun sets: and the moon rises and sets in these portals, and the leaders of the stars and those whom they lead: six in the east and six in the west, and all following each other in accurately corresponding order: also many windows to the right and left of these portals.

⁴And first there goes forth the great luminary, named the Sun, and his circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and he is quite filled with illuminating and heating fire.

⁵The chariot on which he ascends, the wind drives, and the sun goes down from the heaven and returns through the north in order to reach the east, and is so guided that he comes to the appropriate (lit. 'that') portal and shines in the face of the heaven.

⁶In this way he rises in the first month in the great portal, which is the fourth those six portals in the east.

⁷And in that fourth portal from which the sun rises in the first month are twelve window-openings, from which proceed a flame when they are opened in their season.

⁸When the sun rises in the heaven, he comes forth through that fourth portal thirty mornings in succession, and sets accurately in the fourth portal in the west of the heaven.

⁹And during this period the day becomes daily longer and the night nightly shorter to the thirtieth morning.

¹⁰On that day the day is longer than the night by a ninth part, and the day amounts exactly to ten parts and the night to eight parts.

¹¹And the sun rises from that fourth portal, and sets in the fourth and returns to the fifth portal of the east thirty mornings, and rises from it and sets in the fifth portal.

¹²And then the day becomes longer by two parts and amounts to eleven parts, and the night becomes shorter and amounts to seven parts.

¹³And it returns to the east and enters into the sixth portal, and rises and sets in the sixth portal one and thirty mornings on account of its sign.

¹⁴On that day the day becomes longer than the night, and the day becomes double the night, and the day becomes twelve parts, and the night is shortened and becomes six parts.

¹⁵And the sun mounts up to make the day shorter and the night longer, and the sun returns to the east and enters into the sixth portal, and rises from it and sets thirty mornings.

¹⁶And when thirty mornings are accomplished, the day decreases by exactly one part, and becomes eleven parts, and the night seven.

¹⁷And the sun goes forth from that sixth portal in the west, and goes to the east and rises in the fifth portal for thirty mornings, and sets in the west again in the fifth western portal.

¹⁸On that day the day decreases by two parts, and amounts to ten parts and the night to eight parts.

¹⁹And the sun goes forth from that fifth portal and sets in the fifth portal of the west, and rises in the fourth portal for one and thirty mornings on account of its sign, and sets in the west.

²⁰On that day the day is equalized with the night, and becomes of equal length, and the night amounts to nine parts and the day to nine parts.

²¹And the sun rises from that portal and sets in the west, and returns to the east and rises thirty mornings in the third portal and sets in the west in the third portal.

²²And on that day the night becomes longer than the day, and night becomes longer than night, and day shorter than day till the thirtieth morning, and the night amounts exactly to ten parts and the day to eight parts.

²³And the sun rises from that third portal and sets in the third portal in the west and returns to the east, and for thirty mornings rises in the second portal in the east, and in like manner sets in the second portal in the west of the heaven.

²⁴And on that day the night amounts to eleven parts and the day to seven parts.

²⁵And the sun rises on that day from that second portal and sets in the west in the second portal, and returns to the east into the first portal for one and thirty mornings, and sets in the first portal in the west of the heaven.

²⁶And on that day the night becomes longer and amounts to the double of the day: and the night amounts exactly to twelve parts and the day to six.

²⁷And the sun has (therewith) traversed the divisions of his orbit and turns again on those divisions of his orbit, and enters that portal thirty mornings and sets also in the west opposite to it.

²⁸And on that night has the night decreased in length by a ninth part, and the night has become eleven parts and the day seven parts.

²⁹And the sun has returned and entered into the second portal in the east, and returns on those his divisions of his orbit for thirty mornings, rising and setting.

³⁰And on that day the night decreases in length, and the night amounts to ten parts and the day to eight.

³¹And on that day the sun rises from that portal, and sets in the west, and returns to the east, and rises in the third portal for one and thirty mornings, and sets in the west of the heaven.

³²On that day the night decreases and amounts to nine parts, and the day to nine parts, and the night is equal to the day and the year is exactly as to its days three hundred and sixty-four.

³³And the length of the day and of the night, and the shortness of the day and of the night arise—through the course of the sun these distinctions are made (lit. 'they are separated').

³⁴So it comes that its course becomes daily longer, and its course nightly shorter.

³⁵And this is the law and the course of the sun, and his return as often as he returns sixty times and rises, i.e. the great luminary which is named the Sun, for ever and ever.

³⁶And that which (thus) rises is the great luminary, and is so named according to its appearance, according as the Lord commanded.

³⁷As he rises, so he sets and decreases not, and rests not, but runs day and night, and his light is sevenfold brighter than that of the moon; but as regards size they are both equal.

Chapter 73

¹And after this law I saw another law dealing with the smaller luminary, which is named the Moon.

²And her circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and her chariot in which she rides is driven by the wind, and light is given to her in (definite) measure.

³And her rising and setting change every month: and her days are like the days of the sun, and when her light is uniform (i.e. full) it amounts to the seventh part of the light of the sun.

⁴And thus she rises. And her first phase in the east comes forth on the thirtieth morning: and on that day she becomes visible, and constitutes for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day together with the sun in the portal where the sun rises.

⁵And the one half of her goes forth by a seventh part, and her whole circumference is empty, without light, with the exception of one-seventh part of it, (and) the fourteenth part of her light.

⁶And when she receives one-seventh part of the half of her light, her light amounts to one-seventh part and the half thereof.

⁷And she sets with the sun, and when the sun rises the moon rises with him and receives the half of one part of light, and in that night in the beginning of her morning in the commencement of the lunar day the moon sets with the sun, and is invisible that night with the fourteen parts and the half of one of them.

⁸And she rises on that day with exactly a seventh part, and comes forth and recedes from the rising of the sun, and in her remaining days she becomes bright in the (remaining) thirteen parts.

Chapter 74

¹And I saw another course, a law for her, (and) how according to that law she performs her monthly revolution.

²And all these Uriel, the holy angel who is the leader of them all, showed to me, and their positions, and I wrote down their positions as he showed them to me, and I wrote down their months as they were, and the appearance of their lights till fifteen days were accomplished.

³In single seventh parts she accomplishes all her light in the east, and in single seventh parts accomplishes all her darkness in the west.

⁴And in certain months she alters her settings, and in certain months she pursues her own peculiar course.

⁵In two months the moon sets with the sun in those two middle portals the third and the fourth.

⁶She goes forth for seven days, and turns about and returns again through the portal where the sun rises, and accomplishes all her light: and she recedes from the sun, and in eight days enters the sixth portal from which the sun goes forth.

⁷And when the sun goes forth from the fourth portal she goes forth seven days, until she goes forth from the fifth and turns back again in seven days into the fourth portal and accomplishes all her light: and she recedes and enters into the first portal in eight days.

⁸And she returns again in seven days into the fourth portal from which the sun goes forth.

⁹Thus I saw their position—how the moons rose and the sun set in those days.

¹⁰And if five years are added together the sun has an overplus of thirty days, and all the days which accrue to it for one of those five years, when they are full, amount to 364 days.

¹¹And the overplus of the sun and of the stars amounts to six days: in 5 years 6 days every year come to 30 days: and the moon falls behind the sun and stars to the number of 30 days.

¹²And the sun and the stars bring in all the years exactly, so that they do not advance or delay their position by a single day unto eternity; but complete the years with perfect justice in 364 days.

¹³In 3 years there are 1092 days, and in 5 years 1820 days, so that in 8 years there are 2912 days.

¹⁴For the moon alone the days amount in 3 years to 1062 days, and in 5 years she falls 50 days behind: i.e. to the sum (of 1770) there is to be added (1000 and) 62 days.

¹⁵And in 5 years there are 1770 days, so that for the moon the days in 8 years amount to 2832 days.

¹⁶For in 8 years she falls behind to the amount of 80 days, all the days she falls behind in 8 years are 80.

¹⁷And the year is accurately completed in conformity with their world-stations and the stations of the sun, which rise from the portals through which it (the sun) rises and sets 30 days.

Chapter 75

¹And the leaders of the heads of the thousands, who are placed over the whole creation and over all the stars, have also to do with the four intercalary days, being inseparable from their office, according to the reckoning of the year, and these render service on the four days which are not reckoned in the reckoning of the year.

²And owing to them men go wrong therein, for those luminaries truly render service on the world-stations, one in the first portal, one in the third portal of the heaven, one in the fourth portal, and one in the sixth portal, and the exactness of the year is accomplished through its separate three hundred and sixty-four stations.

³For the signs and the times and the years and the days the angel Uriel showed to me, whom the Lord of glory hath set for ever over all the luminaries of the heaven, in the heaven and in the world, that they should rule on the face of the heaven and be seen on the earth, and be leaders for the day and the night, i.e. the sun, moon, and stars, and all the ministering creatures which make their revolution in all the chariots of the heaven.

⁴In like manner twelve doors Uriel showed me, open in the circumference of the sun's chariot in the heaven, through which the rays of the sun break forth: and from them is warmth diffused over the earth, when they are opened at their appointed seasons.

⁵And for the winds and the spirit of the dew when they are opened, standing open in the heavens at the ends.

⁶As for the twelve portals in the heaven, at the ends of the earth, out of which go forth the sun, moon, and stars, and all the works of heaven in the east and in the west,

⁷There are many windows open to the left and right of them, and one window at its (appointed) season produces warmth, corresponding (as these do) to those doors from which the stars come forth according as He has commanded them, and wherein they set corresponding to their number.

⁸And I saw chariots in the heaven, running in the world, above those portals in which revolve the stars that never set.

⁹And one is larger than all the rest, and it is that that makes its course through the entire world.

Chapter 76

¹And at the ends of the earth I saw twelve portals open to all the quarters (of the heaven), from which the winds go forth and blow over the earth.

²Three of them are open on the face (i.e. the east) of the heavens, and three in the west, and three on the right (i.e. the south) of the heaven, and three on the left (i.e. the north).

³And the three first are those of the east, and three are of the north, and three after those on the left of the south, and three of the west.

⁴Through four of these come winds of blessing and prosperity, and from those eight come hurtful winds: when they are sent, they bring destruction on all the earth and on the water upon it, and on all who dwell thereon, and on everything which is in the water and on the land.

⁵And the first wind from those portals, called the east wind, comes forth through the first portal which is in the east, inclining towards the south: from it come forth desolation, drought, heat, and destruction.

⁶And through the second portal in the middle comes what is fitting, and from it there come rain and fruitfulness and prosperity and dew; and through the third portal which lies toward the north come cold and drought.

⁷And after these come forth the south winds through three portals: through the first portal of them inclining to the east comes forth a hot wind.

⁸And through the middle portal next to it there come forth fragrant smells, and dew and rain, and prosperity and health.

⁹And through the third portal lying to the west come forth dew and rain, locusts and desolation.

¹⁰And after these the north winds: from the seventh portal in the east come dew and rain, locusts and desolation.

¹¹And from the middle portal come in a direct direction health and rain and dew and prosperity; and through the third portal in the west come cloud and hoar-frost, and snow and rain, and dew and locusts.

¹²And after these four are the west winds: through the first portal adjoining the north come forth dew and hoar-frost, and cold and snow and frost. And from the middle portal come forth dew and rain, and prosperity and blessing; and through the last portal which adjoins the south come forth drought and desolation, and burning and destruction.

¹⁴And the twelve portals of the four quarters of the heaven are therewith completed, and all their laws and all their plagues and all their benefactions have I shown to thee, my son Methuselah.

Chapter 77

¹And the first quarter is called the east, because it is the first: and the second, the south, because the Most High will descend there, yea, there in quite a special sense will He who is blessed for ever descend.

²And the west quarter is named the diminished, because there all the luminaries of the heaven wane and go down.

³And the fourth quarter, named the north, is divided into three parts: the first of them is for the dwelling of men: and the second contains seas of water, and the abysses and forests and rivers, and darkness and clouds; and the third part contains the garden of righteousness.

⁴I saw seven high mountains, higher than all the mountains which are on the earth: and thence comes forth hoar-frost, and days, seasons, and years pass away.

⁵I saw seven rivers on the earth larger than all the rivers: one of them coming from the west pours its waters into the Great Sea.

⁶And these two come from the north to the sea and pour their waters into the Erythraean Sea in the east.

⁷And the remaining four come forth on the side of the north to their own sea, two of them to the Erythraean Sea, and two into the Great Sea and discharge themselves there and some say: into the desert.

⁸Seven great islands I saw in the sea and in the mainland: two in the mainland and five in the Great Sea.

Chapter 78

¹And the names of the sun are the following: the first Orjârês, and the second Tômâs.

²And the moon has four names: the first name is Asônjâ, the second Eblâ, the third Benâsê, and the fourth Erâe.

³These are the two great luminaries: their circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and the size of the circumference of both is alike.

⁴In the circumference of the sun there are seven portions of light which are added to it more than to the moon, and in definite measures it is transferred till the seventh portion of the sun is exhausted.

⁵And they set and enter the portals of the west, and make their revolution by the north, and come forth through the eastern portals on the face of the heaven.

⁶And when the moon rises one-fourteenth part appears in the heaven: the light becomes full in her: on the fourteenth day she accomplishes her light.

⁷And fifteen parts of light are transferred to her till the fifteenth day (when) her light is accomplished, according to the sign of the year, and she becomes fifteen parts, and the moon grows by (the addition of) fourteenth parts.

⁸And in her waning (the moon) decreases on the first day to fourteen parts of her light, on the second to thirteen parts of light, on the third to twelve, on the fourth to eleven, on the fifth to ten, on the sixth to nine, on the seventh to eight, on the eighth to seven, on the ninth to six, on the tenth to five, on the eleventh to four, on the twelfth to three, on the thirteenth to two, on the fourteenth to the half of a seventh, and all her remaining light disappears wholly on the fifteenth.

⁹And in certain months the month has twenty-nine days and once twenty-eight.

¹⁰And Uriel showed me another law: when light is transferred to the moon, and on which side it is transferred to her by the sun.

¹¹During all the period during which the moon is growing in her light, she is transferring it to herself when opposite to the sun during fourteen days her light is accomplished in the heaven, and when she is illumined throughout, her light is accomplished full in the heaven.

¹²And on the first day she is called the new moon, for on that day the light rises upon her.

¹³She becomes full moon exactly on the day when the sun sets in the west, and from the east she rises at night, and the moon shines the whole night through till the sun rises over against her and the moon is seen over against the sun.

¹⁴On the side whence the light of the moon comes forth, there again she wanes till all the light vanishes and all the days of the month are at an end, and her circumference is empty, void of light.

¹⁵And three months she makes of thirty days, and at her time she makes three months of twenty-nine days each, in which she accomplishes her waning in the first period of time, and in the first portal for one hundred and seventy-seven days.

¹⁶And in the time of her going out she appears for three months (of) thirty days each, and for three months she appears (of) twenty-nine each.

¹⁷At night she appears like a man for twenty days each time, and by day she appears like the heaven, and there is nothing else in her save her light.

Chapter 79

¹And now, my son, I have shown thee everything, and the law of all the stars of the heaven is completed.

²And he showed me all the laws of these for every day, and for every season of bearing rule, and for every year, and for its going forth, and for the order prescribed to it every month and every week:

³And the waning of the moon which takes place in the sixth portal: for in this sixth portal her light is accomplished, and after that there is the beginning of the waning:

⁴And the waning which takes place in the first portal in its season, till one hundred and seventy-seven days are accomplished: reckoned according to weeks, twenty-five (weeks) and two days.

⁵She falls behind the sun and the order of the stars exactly five days in the course of one period, and when this place which thou seest has been traversed.

⁶Such is the picture and sketch of every luminary which Uriel the archangel, who is their leader, showed unto me.

Chapter 80

¹And in those days the angel Uriel answered and said to me: 'Behold, I have shown thee everything, Enoch, and I have revealed everything to thee that thou shouldst see this sun and this moon, and the leaders of the stars of the heaven and all those who turn them, their tasks and times and departures.

²And in the days of the sinners the years shall be shortened,
And their seed shall be tardy on their lands and fields,
And all things on the earth shall alter,
And shall not appear in their time:
And the rain shall be kept back
And the heaven shall withhold (it).

³And in those times the fruits of the earth shall be backward,
And shall not grow in their time,
And the fruits of the trees shall be withheld in their time.

⁴And the moon shall alter her order,
And not appear at her time.

⁵And in those days the sun shall be seen and he shall journey in the evening on the extremity of the great chariot in the west
And shall shine more brightly than accords with the order of light.

⁶And many chiefs of the stars shall transgress the order (prescribed).
And these shall alter their orbits and tasks,
And not appear at the seasons prescribed to them.

⁷And the whole order of the stars shall be concealed from the sinners,
And the thoughts of those on the earth shall err concerning them,
And they shall be altered from all their ways,
Yea, they shall err and take them to be gods.

⁸And evil shall be multiplied upon them,
And punishment shall come upon them
So as to destroy all.'

Chapter 81

¹And he said unto me: 'Observe, Enoch, these heavenly tablets,
And read what is written thereon,
And mark every individual fact.'

²And I observed the heavenly tablets, and read everything which was written (thereon) and understood everything, and read the book of all the deeds of mankind, and of all the children of flesh that shall be upon the earth to the remotest generations.

³And forthwith I blessed the great Lord the King of glory for ever, in that He has made all the works of the world,
And I extolled the Lord because of His patience,
And blessed Him because of the children of men.

⁴And after that I said: 'Blessed is the man who dies in righteousness and goodness,
Concerning whom there is no book of unrighteousness written,
And against whom no day of judgement shall be found.'

⁵And those seven holy ones brought me and placed me on the earth before the door of my house, and said to me: 'Declare everything to thy son Methuselah, and show to all thy children that no flesh is righteous in the sight of the Lord, for He is their Creator.

⁶One year we will leave thee with thy son, till thou givest thy (last) commands, that thou mayest teach thy children and record (it) for them, and testify to all thy children; and in the second year they shall take thee from their midst.

⁷Let thy heart be strong,
For the good shall announce righteousness to the good;
The righteous with the righteous shall rejoice,
And shall offer congratulation to one another.

⁸But the sinners shall die with the sinners,
And the apostate go down with the apostate.

⁹And those who practice righteousness shall die on account of the deeds of men,
And be taken away on account of the doings of the godless.'

¹⁰And in those days they ceased to speak to me, and I came to my people, blessing the Lord of the world.

Chapter 82

¹And now, my son Methuselah, all these things I am recounting to thee and writing down for thee, and I have revealed to thee everything, and given thee books concerning all these: so preserve, my son Methuselah, the books from thy father's hand, and (see) that thou deliver them to the generations of the world.

²I have given Wisdom to thee and to thy children,
And thy children that shall be to thee,
That they may give it to their children for generations,
This wisdom (namely) that passeth their thought.

³And those who understand it shall not sleep,
But shall listen with the ear that they may learn this wisdom,
And it shall please those that eat thereof better than good food.

⁴Blessed are all the righteous, blessed are all those who walk in the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners, in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverses the heaven, entering into and departing from the portals for thirty days with the heads of thousands of the order of the stars, together with the four which are intercalated which divide the four portions of the year, which lead them and enter with them four days.

⁵Owing to them men shall be at fault and not reckon them in the whole reckoning of the year: yea, men shall be at fault, and not recognize them accurately.

⁶For they belong to the reckoning of the year and are truly recorded (thereon) for ever, one in the first portal and one in the third, and one in the fourth and one in the sixth, and the year is completed in three hundred and sixty-four days.

⁷And the account thereof is accurate and the recorded reckoning thereof exact; for the luminaries, and months and festivals, and years and days, has Uriel shown and revealed to me, to whom the Lord of the whole creation of the world hath subjected the host of heaven.

⁸And he has power over night and day in the heaven to cause the light to give light to men—sun, moon, and stars, and all the powers of the heaven which revolve in their circular chariots.

⁹And these are the orders of the stars, which set in their places, and in their seasons and festivals and months.

¹⁰And these are the names of those who lead them, who watch that they enter at their times, in their orders, in their seasons, in their months, in their periods of dominion, and in their positions.

¹¹Their four leaders who divide the four parts of the year enter first; and after them the twelve leaders of the orders who divide the months; and for the three hundred and sixty (days) there are heads over thousands who divide the days; and for the four intercalary days there are the leaders which sunder the four parts of the year.

¹²And these heads over thousands are intercalated between leader and leader, each behind a station, but their leaders make the division.

¹³And these are the names of the leaders who divide the four parts of the year which are ordained: Mîlkî'êl, Hel'emmêlêk, and Mêl'êjal, and Nârêl.

¹⁴And the names of those who lead them: Adnâr'êl, and Îjâsûsa'êl, and 'Elômê'êl—these three follow the leaders of the orders, and there is one that follows the three leaders of the orders which follow those leaders of stations that divide the four parts of the year.

¹⁵In the beginning of the year Melkejâl rises first and rules, who is named Tam'âinî and sun, and all the days of his dominion whilst he bears rule are ninety-one days.

¹⁶And these are the signs of the days which are to be seen on earth in the days of his dominion: sweat, and heat, and calms; and all the trees bear fruit, and leaves are produced on all the trees, and the harvest of wheat, and the rose-flowers, and all the flowers which come forth in the field, but the trees of the winter season become withered.

¹⁷And these are the names of the leaders which are under them: Berka'êl, Zêlebs'êl, and another who is added a head of a thousand, called Hîlûjâsĕph: and the days of the dominion of this (leader) are at an end.

¹⁸The next leader after him is Hêl'emmêlêk, whom one names the shining sun, and all the days of his light are ninety-one days.

¹⁹And these are the signs of (his) days on the earth: glowing heat and dryness, and the trees ripen their fruits and produce all their fruits ripe and ready, and the sheep pair and become pregnant, and all the fruits of the earth are gathered in, and everything that is in the fields, and the winepress: these things take place in the days of his dominion.

²⁰These are the names, and the orders, and the leaders of those heads of thousands: Gîdâ'îjal, Kê'êl, and Hê'êl, and the name of the head of a thousand which is added to them, Asfâ'êl': and the days of his dominion are at an end.

The Dream Visions

Chapter 83

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

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. And regarding them I prayed to the Lord.

³I 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.

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.

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

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?'

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Chapter 84

¹And I lifted up my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One, and spake with the breath of my mouth, and with the tongue of flesh, which God has made for the children of the flesh of men, that they should speak therewith, and He gave them breath and a tongue and a mouth that they should speak therewith:

²'Blessed be Thou, O Lord, King,
Great and mighty in Thy greatness,
Lord of the whole creation of the heaven,
King of kings and God of the whole world.
And Thy power and kingship and greatness abide for ever and ever,
And throughout all generations Thy dominion;
And all the heavens are Thy throne for ever,
And the whole earth Thy footstool for ever and ever.

³For Thou hast made and Thou rulest all things,
And nothing is too hard for Thee,
Wisdom departs not from the place of Thy throne,
Nor turns away from Thy presence.
And Thou knowest and seest and hearest everything,
And there is nothing hidden from Thee for Thou seest everything.

⁴And now the angels of Thy heavens are guilty of trespass,
And upon the flesh of men abideth Thy wrath until the great day of judgement.

⁵And now, O God and Lord and Great King,
I implore and beseech Thee to fulfil my prayer,
To leave me a posterity on earth,
And not destroy all the flesh of man,
And make the earth without inhabitant,
So that there should be an eternal destruction.

⁶And now, my Lord, destroy from the earth the flesh which has aroused Thy wrath,
But the flesh of righteousness and uprightness establish as a plant of the eternal seed,
And hide not Thy face from the prayer of Thy servant, O Lord.'

Chapter 85

¹And after this I saw another dream, and I will show the whole dream to thee, my son.

²And Enoch lifted up (his voice) and spake to his son Methuselah: 'To thee, my son, will I speak: hear my words—incline thine ear to the dream-vision of thy father.

³Before I took thy mother Edna, I saw in a vision on my bed, and behold a bull came forth from the earth, and that bull was white; and after it came forth a heifer, and along with this (latter) came forth two bulls, one of them black and the other red.

⁴And that black bull gored the red one and pursued him over the earth, and thereupon I could no longer see that red bull.

⁵But that black bull grew and that heifer went with him, and I saw that many oxen proceeded from him which resembled and followed him.

⁶And that cow, that first one, went from the presence of that first bull in order to seek that red one, but found him not, and lamented with a great lamentation over him and sought him.

⁷And I looked till that first bull came to her and quieted her, and from that time onward she cried no more.

⁸And after that she bore another white bull, and after him she bore many bulls and black cows.

⁹And I saw in my sleep that white bull likewise grow and become a great white bull, and from Him proceeded many white bulls, and they resembled him. And they began to beget many white bulls, which resembled them, one following the other, (even) many.

Chapter 86

¹And again I saw with mine eyes as I slept, and I saw the heaven above, and behold a star fell from heaven, and it arose and eat and pastured amongst those oxen.

²And after that I saw the large and the black oxen, and behold they all changed their stalls and pastures and their cattle, and began to live with each other.

³And again I saw in the vision, and looked towards the heaven, and behold I saw many stars descend and cast themselves down from heaven to that first star, and they became bulls amongst those cattle and pastured with them amongst them.

⁴And I looked at them and saw, and behold they all let out their privy members, like horses, and began to cover the cows of the oxen, and they all became pregnant and bare elephants, camels, and asses.

⁵And all the oxen feared them and were affrighted at them, and began to bite with their teeth and to devour, and to gore with their horns.

⁶And they began, moreover, to devour those oxen; and behold all the children of the earth began to tremble and quake before them and to flee from them.

Chapter 87

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

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.

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.

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.'

Chapter 88

¹And I saw one of those four who had come forth first, and he seized that first star which had fallen from the heaven, and bound it hand and foot and cast it into an abyss: now that abyss was narrow and deep, and horrible and dark.

²And one of them drew a sword, and gave it to those elephants and camels and asses: then they began to smite each other, and the whole earth quaked because of them.

³And as I was beholding in the vision, lo, one of those four who had come forth stoned (them) from heaven, and gathered and took all the great stars whose privy members were like those of horses, and bound them all hand and foot, and cast them in an abyss of the earth.

Chapter 89

¹And one of those four went to that white bull and instructed him in a secret, without his being terrified: he was born a bull and became a man, and built for himself a great vessel and dwelt thereon; and three bulls dwelt with him in that vessel and they were covered in.

²And again I raised mine eyes towards heaven and saw a lofty roof, with seven water torrents thereon, and those torrents flowed with much water into an enclosure.

³And I saw again, and behold fountains were opened on the surface of that great enclosure, and that water began to swell and rise upon the surface, and I saw that enclosure till all its surface was covered with water.

⁴And the water, the darkness, and mist increased upon it; and as I looked at the height of that water, that water had risen above the height of that enclosure, and was streaming over that enclosure, and it stood upon the earth.

⁵And all the cattle of that enclosure were gathered together until I saw how they sank and were swallowed up and perished in that water.

⁶But that vessel floated on the water, while all the oxen and elephants and camels and asses sank to the bottom with all the animals, so that I could no longer see them, and they were not able to escape, (but) perished and sank into the depths.

⁷And again I saw in the vision till those water torrents were removed from that high roof, and the chasms of the earth were levelled up and other abysses were opened.

⁸Then the water began to run down into these, till the earth became visible; but that vessel settled on the earth, and the darkness retired and light appeared.

⁹But that white bull which had become a man came out of that vessel, and the three bulls with him, and one of those three was white like that bull, and one of them was red as blood, and one black: and that white bull departed from them.

¹⁰And they began to bring forth beasts of the field and birds, so that there arose different genera: lions, tigers, wolves, dogs, hyenas, wild boars, foxes, squirrels, swine, falcons, vultures, kites, eagles, and ravens; and among them was born a white bull.

¹¹And they began to bite one another; but that white bull which was born amongst them begat a wild ass and a white bull with it, and the wild asses multiplied.

¹²But that bull which was born from him begat a black wild boar and a white sheep; and the former begat many boars, but that sheep begat twelve sheep.

¹³And when those twelve sheep had grown, they gave up one of them to the asses, and those asses again gave up that sheep to the wolves, and that sheep grew up among the wolves.

¹⁴And the Lord brought the eleven sheep to live with it and to pasture with it among the wolves: and they multiplied and became many flocks of sheep.

¹⁵And the wolves began to fear them, and they oppressed them until they destroyed their little ones, and they cast their young into a river of much water: but those sheep began to cry aloud on account of their little ones, and to complain unto their Lord.

¹⁶And a sheep which had been saved from the wolves fled and escaped to the wild asses; and I saw the sheep how they lamented and cried, and besought their Lord with all their might, till that Lord of the sheep descended at the voice of the sheep from a lofty abode, and came to them and pastured them.

¹⁷And He called that sheep which had escaped the wolves, and spake with it concerning the wolves that it should admonish them not to touch the sheep.

¹⁸And the sheep went to the wolves according to the word of the Lord, and another sheep met it and went with it, and the two went and entered together into the assembly of those wolves, and spake with them and admonished them not to touch the sheep from henceforth.

¹⁹And thereupon I saw the wolves, and how they oppressed the sheep exceedingly with all their power; and the sheep cried aloud.

²⁰And the Lord came to the sheep and they began to smite those wolves: and the wolves began to make lamentation; but the sheep became quiet and forthwith ceased to cry out.

²¹And I saw the sheep till they departed from amongst the wolves; but the eyes of the wolves were blinded, and those wolves departed in pursuit of the sheep with all their power.

²²And the Lord of the sheep went with them, as their leader, and all His sheep followed Him: and his face was dazzling and glorious and terrible to behold.

²³But the wolves began to pursue those sheep till they reached a sea of water.

²⁴And that sea was divided, and the water stood on this side and on that before their face, and their Lord led them and placed Himself between them and the wolves.

²⁵And as those wolves did not yet see the sheep, they proceeded into the midst of that sea, and the wolves followed the sheep, and those wolves ran after them into that sea.

²⁶And when they saw the Lord of the sheep, they turned to flee before His face, but that sea gathered itself together, and became as it had been created, and the water swelled and rose till it covered those wolves.

²⁷And I saw till all the wolves who pursued those sheep perished and were drowned.

²⁸But the sheep escaped from that water and went forth into a wilderness, where there was no water and no grass; and they began to open their eyes and to see; and I saw the Lord of the sheep pasturing them and giving them water and grass, and that sheep going and leading them.

²⁹And that sheep ascended to the summit of that lofty rock, and the Lord of the sheep sent it to them.

³⁰And after that I saw the Lord of the sheep who stood before them, and His appearance was great and terrible and majestic, and all those sheep saw Him and were afraid before His face.

³¹And they all feared and trembled because of Him, and they cried to that sheep with them which was amongst them: "We are not able to stand before our Lord or to behold Him."

³²And that sheep which led them again ascended to the summit of that rock, but the sheep began to be blinded and to wander from the way which he had showed them, but that sheep wot not thereof.

³³And the Lord of the sheep was wrathful exceedingly against them, and that sheep discovered it, and went down from the summit of the rock, and came to the sheep, and found the greatest part of them blinded and fallen away.

³⁴And when they saw it they feared and trembled at its presence, and desired to return to their folds.

³⁵And that sheep took other sheep with it, and came to those sheep which had fallen away, and began to slay them; and the sheep feared its presence, and thus that sheep brought back those sheep that had fallen away, and they returned to their folds.

³⁶And I saw in this vision till that sheep became a man and built a house for the Lord of the sheep, and placed all the sheep in that house.

³⁷And I saw till this sheep which had met that sheep which led them fell asleep: and I saw till all the great sheep perished and little ones arose in their place, and they came to a pasture, and approached a stream of water.

³⁸Then that sheep, their leader which had become a man, withdrew from them and fell asleep, and all the sheep sought it and cried over it with a great crying.

³⁹And I saw till they left off crying for that sheep and crossed that stream of water, and there arose the two sheep as leaders in the place of those which had led them and fallen asleep (lit. "had fallen asleep and led them").

⁴⁰And I saw till the sheep came to a goodly place, and a pleasant and glorious land, and I saw till those sheep were satisfied; and that house stood amongst them in the pleasant land.

⁴¹And sometimes their eyes were opened, and sometimes blinded, till another sheep arose and led them and brought them all back, and their eyes were opened.

⁴²And the dogs and the foxes and the wild boars began to devour those sheep till the Lord of the sheep raised up another sheep a ram from their midst, which led them.

⁴³And that ram began to butt on either side those dogs, foxes, and wild boars till he had destroyed them all.

⁴⁴And that sheep whose eyes were opened saw that ram, which was amongst the sheep, till it forsook its glory and began to butt those sheep, and trampled upon them, and behaved itself unseemly.

⁴⁵And the Lord of the sheep sent the lamb to another lamb and raised it to being a ram and leader of the sheep instead of that ram which had forsaken its glory.

⁴⁶And it went to it and spake to it alone, and raised it to being a ram, and made it the prince and leader of the sheep; but during all these things those dogs oppressed the sheep.

⁴⁷And the first ram pursued that second ram, and that second ram arose and fled before it; and I saw till those dogs pulled down the first ram.

⁴⁸And that second ram arose and led the little sheep.

⁴⁹And those sheep grew and multiplied; but all the dogs, and foxes, and wild boars feared and fled before it, and that ram butted and kiled the wild beasts, and those wild beasts had no longer any power among the sheep and robbed them no more of aught. 48b And that ram begat many sheep and fell asleep; and a little sheep became ram in its stead, and became prince and leader of those sheep.

⁵⁰And that house became great and broad, and it was built for those sheep: and a tower lofty and great was built on the house for the Lord of the sheep, and that house was low, but the tower was elevated and lofty, and the Lord of the sheep stood on that tower and they offered a full table before Him.

⁵¹And again I saw those sheep that they again erred and went many ways, and forsook that their house, and the Lord of the sheep called some from amongst the sheep and sent them to the sheep, but the sheep began to slay them.

⁵²And one of them was saved and was not slain, and it sped away and cried aloud over the sheep; and they sought to slay it, but the Lord of the sheep saved it from the sheep, and brought it up to me, and caused it to dwell there.

⁵³And many other sheep He sent to those sheep to testify unto them and lament over them.

⁵⁴And after that I saw that when they forsook the house of the Lord and His tower they fell away entirely, and their eyes were blinded; and I saw the Lord of the sheep how He wrought much slaughter amongst them in their herds until those sheep invited that slaughter and betrayed His place.

⁵⁵And He gave them over into the hands of the lions and tigers, and wolves and hyenas, and into the hand of the foxes, and to all the wild beasts, and those wild beasts began to tear in pieces those sheep.

⁵⁶And I saw that He forsook that their house and their tower and gave them all into the hand of the lions, to tear and devour them, into the hand of all the wild beasts.

⁵⁷And I began to cry aloud with all my power, and to appeal to the Lord of the sheep, and to represent to Him in regard to the sheep that they were devoured by all the wild beasts.

⁵⁸But He remained unmoved, though He saw it, and rejoiced that they were devoured and swallowed and robbed, and left them to be devoured in the hand of all the beasts.

⁵⁹And He called seventy shepherds, and cast those sheep to them that they might pasture them, and He spake to the shepherds and their companions: "Let each individual of you pasture the sheep henceforward, and everything that I shall command you that do ye.

⁶⁰And I will deliver them over unto you duly numbered, and tell you which of them are to be destroyed—and them destroy ye." And He gave over unto them those sheep.

⁶¹And He called another and spake unto him: "Observe and mark everything that the shepherds will do to those sheep; for they will destroy more of them than I have commanded them.

⁶²And every excess and the destruction which will be wrought through the shepherds, record (namely) how many they destroy according to my command, and how many according to their own caprice: record against every individual shepherd all the destruction he effects.

⁶³And read out before me by number how many they destroy, and how many they deliver over for destruction, that I may have this as a testimony against them, and know every deed of the shepherds, that I may comprehend and see what they do, whether or not they abide by my command which I have commanded them.

⁶⁴But they shall not know it, and thou shalt not declare it to them, nor admonish them, but only record against each individual all the destruction which the shepherds effect each in his time and lay it all before me."

⁶⁵And I saw till those shepherds pastured in their season, and they began to slay and to destroy more than they were bidden, and they delivered those sheep into the hand of the lions.

⁶⁶And the lions and tigers eat and devoured the greater part of those sheep, and the wild boars eat along with them; and they burnt that tower and demolished that house.

⁶⁷And I became exceedingly sorrowful over that tower because that house of the sheep was demolished, and afterwards I was unable to see if those sheep entered that house.

⁶⁸And the shepherds and their associates delivered over those sheep to all the wild beasts, to devour them, and each one of them received in his time a definite number: it was written by the other in a book how many each one of them destroyed of them.

⁶⁹And each one slew and destroyed many more than was prescribed; and I began to weep and lament on account of those sheep.

⁷⁰And thus in the vision I saw that one who wrote, how he wrote down every one that was destroyed by those shepherds, day by day, and carried up and laid down and showed actually the whole book to the Lord of the sheep—(even) everything that they had done, and all that each one of them had made away with, and all that they had given over to destruction.

⁷¹And the book was read before the Lord of the sheep, and He took the book from his hand and read it and sealed it and laid it down.

⁷²And forthwith I saw how the shepherds pastured for twelve hours, and behold three of those sheep turned back and came and entered and began to build up all that had fallen down of that house; but the wild boars tried to hinder them, but they were not able.

⁷³And they began again to build as before, and they reared up that tower, and it was named the high tower; and they began again to place a table before the tower, but all the bread on it was polluted and not pure.

⁷⁴And as touching all this the eyes of those sheep were blinded so that they saw not, and (the eyes of) their shepherds likewise; and they delivered them in large numbers to their shepherds for destruction, and they trampled the sheep with their feet and devoured them.

⁷⁵And the Lord of the sheep remained unmoved till all the sheep were dispersed over the field and mingled with them (i.e. the beasts), and they (i.e. the shepherds) did not save them out of the hand of the beasts.

⁷⁶And this one who wrote the book carried it up, and showed it and read it before the Lord of the sheep, and implored Him on their account, and besought Him on their account as he showed Him all the doings of the shepherds, and gave testimony before Him against all the shepherds. And he took the actual book and laid it down beside Him and departed.

Chapter 90

¹And I saw till that in this manner thirty-five shepherds undertook the pasturing (of the sheep), and they severally completed their periods as did the first; and others received them into their hands, to pasture them for their period, each shepherd in his own period.

²And after that I saw in my vision all the birds of heaven coming, the eagles, the vultures, the kites, the ravens; but the eagles led all the birds; and they began to devour those sheep, and to pick out their eyes and to devour their flesh.

³And the sheep cried out because their flesh was being devoured by the birds, and as for me I looked and lamented in my sleep over that shepherd who pastured the sheep.

⁴And I saw until those sheep were devoured by the dogs and eagles and kites, and they left neither flesh nor skin nor sinew remaining on them till only their bones stood there: and their bones too fell to the earth and the sheep became few.

⁵And I saw until that twenty-three had undertaken the pasturing and completed in their several periods fifty-eight times.

⁶But behold lambs were borne by those white sheep, and they began to open their eyes and to see, and to cry to the sheep.

⁷Yea, they cried to them, but they did not hearken to what they said to them, but were exceedingly deaf, and their eyes were very exceedingly blinded.

⁸And I saw in the vision how the ravens flew upon those lambs and took one of those lambs, and dashed the sheep in pieces and devoured them.

⁹And I saw till horns grew upon those lambs, and the ravens cast down their horns; and I saw till there sprouted a great horn of one of those sheep, and their eyes were opened.

¹⁰And it looked at them and their eyes opened, and it cried to the sheep, and the rams saw it and all ran to it.

¹¹And notwithstanding all this those eagles and vultures and ravens and kites still kept tearing the sheep and swooping down upon them and devouring them: still the sheep remained silent, but the rams lamented and cried out.

¹²And those ravens fought and battled with it and sought to lay low its horn, but they had no power over it.

¹³And I saw till the shepherds and eagles and those vultures and kites came, and they cried to the ravens that they should break the horn of that ram, and they battled and fought with it, and it battled with them and cried that its help might come.

¹⁴And I saw till that man, who wrote down the names of the shepherds and carried up into the presence of the Lord of the sheep came and helped it and showed it everything: he had come down for the help of that ram.

¹⁵And I saw till the Lord of the sheep came unto them in wrath, and all who saw Him fled, and they all fell into His shadow from before His face.

¹⁶All the eagles and vultures and ravens and kites were gathered together, and there came with them all the sheep of the field, yea, they all came together, and helped each other to break that horn of the ram.

¹⁷And I saw that man, who wrote the book according to the command of the Lord, till he opened that book concerning the destruction which those twelve last shepherds had wrought, and showed that they had destroyed much more than their predecessors, before the Lord of the sheep.

¹⁸And I saw till the Lord of the sheep came unto them and took in His hand the staff of His wrath, and smote the earth, and the earth clave asunder, and all the beasts and all the birds of the heaven fell from among those sheep, and were swallowed up in the earth and it covered them.

¹⁹And I saw till a great sword was given to the sheep, and the sheep proceeded against all the beasts of the field to slay them, and all the beasts and the birds of the heaven fled before their face.

²⁰And I saw till a throne was erected in the pleasant land, and the Lord of the sheep sat Himself thereon, and the other took the sealed books and opened those books before the Lord of the sheep.

²¹And the Lord called those men the seven first white ones, and commanded that they should bring before Him, beginning with the first star which led the way, all the stars whose privy members were like those of horses, and they brought them all before Him.

²²And He said to that man who wrote before Him, being one of those seven white ones, and said unto him: "Take those seventy shepherds to whom I delivered the sheep, and who taking them on their own authority slew more than I commanded them."

²³And behold they were all bound, I saw, and they all stood before Him.

²⁴And the judgement was held first over the stars, and they were judged and found guilty, and went to the place of condemnation, and they were cast into an abyss, full of fire and flaming, and full of pillars of fire.

²⁵And those seventy shepherds were judged and found guilty, and they were cast into that fiery abyss.

²⁶And I saw at that time how a like abyss was opened in the midst of the earth, full of fire, and they brought those blinded sheep, and they were all judged and found guilty and cast into this fiery abyss, and they burned; now this abyss was to the right of that house.

²⁷And I saw those sheep burning and their bones burning.

²⁸And I stood up to see till they folded up that old house; and carried off all the pillars, and all the beams and ornaments of the house were at the same time folded up with it, and they carried it off and laid it in a place in the south of the land.

²⁹And I saw till the Lord of the sheep brought a new house greater and loftier than that first, and set it up in the place of the first which had beer folded up: all its pillars were new, and its ornaments were new and larger than those of the first, the old one which He had taken away, and all the sheep were within it.

³⁰And I saw all the sheep which had been left, and all the beasts on the earth, and all the birds of the heaven, falling down and doing homage to those sheep and making petition to and obeying them in every thing.

³¹And thereafter those three who were clothed in white and had seized me by my hand who had taken me up before, and the hand of that ram also seizing hold of me, they took me up and set me down in the midst of those sheep before the judgement took place.

³²And those sheep were all white, and their wool was abundant and clean.

³³And all that had been destroyed and dispersed, and all the beasts of the field, and all the birds of the heaven, assembled in that house, and the Lord of the sheep rejoiced with great joy because they were all good and had returned to His house.

³⁴And I saw till they laid down that sword, which had been given to the sheep, and they brought it back into the house, and it was sealed before the presence of the Lord, and all the sheep were invited into that house, but it held them not.

³⁵And the eyes of them all were opened, and they saw the good, and there was not one among them that did not see.

³⁶And I saw that that house was large and broad and very full.

³⁷And I saw that a white bull was born, with large horns and all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air feared him and made petition to him all the time.

³⁸And I saw till all their generations were transformed, and they all became white bulls; and the first among them became a lamb, and that lamb became a great animal and had great black horns on its head; and the Lord of the sheep rejoiced over it and over all the oxen.

³⁹And I slept in their midst: and I awoke and saw everything.

⁴⁰This is the vision which I saw while I slept, and I awoke and blessed the Lord of righteousness and gave Him glory.

⁴¹Then I wept with a great weeping and my tears stayed not till I could no longer endure it: when I saw, they flowed on account of what I had seen; for everything shall come and be fulfilled, and all the deeds of men in their order were shown to me.

⁴²On that night I remembered the first dream, and because of it I wept and was troubled—because I had seen that vision.'

The Epistle of Enoch

Chapter 92

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.

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

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.

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

Chapter 91, verses 1–11 and 18–19

¹'And now, my son Methuselah, call to me all thy brothers
And gather together to me all the sons of thy mother;
For the word calls me,
And the spirit is poured out upon me,
That I may show you everything
That shall befall you for ever.'

²And there upon Methuselah went and summoned to him all his brothers and assembled his relatives.

³And he spake unto all the children of righteousness and said:
'Hear, ye sons of Enoch, all the words of your father,
And hearken aright to the voice of my mouth;
For I exhort you and say unto you, beloved:
Love uprightness and walk therein.

⁴And draw not nigh to uprightness with a double heart,
And associate not with those of a double heart,
But walk in righteousness, my sons.
And it shall guide you on good paths,
And righteousness shall be your companion.

⁵For I know that violence must increase on the earth,
And a great chastisement be executed on the earth,
And all unrighteousness come to an end:
Yea, it shall be cut off from its roots,
And its whole structure be destroyed.

⁶And unrighteousness shall again be consummated on the earth,
And all the deeds of unrighteousness and of violence
And transgression shall prevail in a twofold degree.

⁷And when sin and unrighteousness and blasphemy
And violence in all kinds of deeds increase,
And apostasy and transgression and uncleanness increase,
A great chastisement shall come from heaven upon all these,
And the holy Lord will come forth with wrath and chastisement
To execute judgement on earth.

⁸In those days violence shall be cut off from its roots,
And the roots of unrighteousness together with deceit,
And they shall be destroyed from under heaven.

⁹And all the idols of the heathen shall be abandoned,
And the temples burned with fire,
And they shall remove them from the whole earth,
And they (i.e. the heathen) shall be cast into the judgement of fire,
And shall perish in wrath and in grievous judgement for ever.

¹⁰And the righteous shall arise from their sleep,
And wisdom shall arise and be given unto them.

¹¹And after that the roots of unrighteousness shall be cut off, and the sinners shall be destroyed by the sword . . . shall be cut off from the blasphemers in every place, and those who plan violence and those who commit blasphemy shall perish by the sword.

¹⁸And now I tell you, my sons, and show you
The paths of righteousness and the paths of violence.
Yea, I will show them to you again
That ye may know what will come to pass.

¹⁹And now, hearken unto me, my sons,
And walk in the paths of righteousness,
And walk not in the paths of violence;
For all who walk in the paths of unrighteousness shall perish for ever.'

Chapter 93

¹And after that Enoch both gave and began to recount from the books. And Enoch said:
'Concerning the children of righteousness and concerning the elect of the world,
And concerning the plant of uprightness, I will speak these things,
Yea, I Enoch will declare (them) unto you, my sons:
According to that which appeared to me in the heavenly vision,
And which I have known through the word of the holy angels,
And have learnt from the heavenly tablets.'

³And Enoch began to recount from the books and said:
'I was born the seventh in the first week,
While judgement and righteousness still endured.

⁴And after me there shall arise in the second week great wickedness,
And deceit shall have sprung up;
And in it there shall be the first end.
And in it a man shall be saved;
And after it is ended unrighteousness shall grow up,
And a law shall be made for the sinners.

⁵And after that in the third week at its close
A man shall be elected as the plant of righteous judgement,
And his posterity shall become the plant of righteousness for evermore.

⁶And after that in the fourth week, at its close,
Visions of the holy and righteous shall be seen,
And a law for all generations and an enclosure shall be made for them.

⁷And after that in the fifth week, at its close,
The house of glory and dominion shall be built for ever.

⁸And after that in the sixth week all who live in it shall be blinded,
And the hearts of all of them shall godlessly forsake wisdom.
And in it a man shall ascend;
And at its close the house of dominion shall be burnt with fire,
And the whole race of the chosen root shall be dispersed.

⁹And after that in the seventh week shall an apostate generation arise,
And many shall be its deeds,
And all its deeds shall be apostate.

¹⁰And at its close shall be elected
The elect righteous of the eternal plant of righteousness,
To receive sevenfold instruction concerning all His creation.

¹¹For who is there of all the children of men that is able to hear the voice of the Holy One without being troubled? And who can think His thoughts? and who is there that can behold all the works of heaven?

¹²And how should there be one who could behold the heaven, and who is there that could understand the things of heaven and see a soul or a spirit and could tell thereof, or ascend and see all their ends and think them or do like them?

¹³And who is there of all men that could know what is the breadth and the length of the earth, and to whom has been shown the measure of all of them?

¹⁴Or is there any one who could discern the length of the heaven and how great is its height, and upon what it is founded, and how great is the number of the stars, and where all the luminaries rest?

Chapter 91, verses 12–17

¹²And after that there shall be another, the eighth week, that of righteousness,
And a sword shall be given to it that a righteous judgement may be executed on the oppressors,
And sinners shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous.

¹³And at its close they shall acquire houses through their righteousness,
And a house shall be built for the Great King in glory for evermore,
14d And all mankind shall look to the path of uprightness.
14a And after that, in the ninth week, the righteous judgement shall be revealed to the whole world,
b. And all the works of the godless shall vanish from all the earth,
c. And the world shall be written down for destruction.

¹⁵And after this, in the tenth week in the seventh part,
There shall be the great eternal judgement,
In which He will execute vengeance amongst the angels.

¹⁶And the first heaven shall depart and pass away,
And a new heaven shall appear,
And all the powers of the heavens shall give sevenfold light.

¹⁷And after that there will be many weeks without number for ever,
And all shall be in goodness and righteousness,
And sin shall no more be mentioned for ever.

Chapter 94

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Chapter 95

¹Oh that mine eyes were a cloud of waters
That I might weep over you,
And pour down my tears as a cloud of waters:
That so I might rest from my trouble of heart!

²Who has permitted you to practice reproaches and wickedness?
And so judgement shall overtake you, sinners.

³Fear not the sinners, ye righteous;
For again will the Lord deliver them into your hands,
That ye may execute judgement upon them according to your desires.

⁴Woe to you who fulminate anathemas which cannot be reversed:
Healing shall therefore be far from you because of your sins.

⁵Woe to you who requite your neighbour with evil;
For ye shall be requited according to your works.

⁶Woe to you, lying witnesses,
And to those who weigh out injustice,
For suddenly shall ye perish.

⁷Woe to you, sinners, for ye persecute the righteous;
For ye shall be delivered up and persecuted because of injustice,
And heavy shall its yoke be upon you.

Chapter 96

¹Be hopeful, ye righteous; for suddenly shall the sinners perish before you,
And ye shall have lordship over them according to your desires.

²And in the day of the tribulation of the sinners,
Your children shall mount and rise as eagles,
And higher than the vultures will be your nest,
And ye shall ascend and enter the crevices of the earth,
And the clefts of the rock for ever as coneys before the unrighteous,
And the sirens shall sigh because of you and weep.

³Wherefore fear not, ye that have suffered;
For healing shall be your portion,
And a bright light shall enlighten you,
And the voice of rest ye shall hear from heaven.

⁴Woe unto you, ye sinners, for your riches make you appear like the righteous,
But your hearts convict you of being sinners,
And this fact shall be a testimony against you for a memorial of (your) evil deeds.

⁵Woe to you who devour the finest of the wheat,
And drink wine in large bowls,
And tread under foot the lowly with your might.

⁶Woe to you who drink water from every fountain,
For suddenly shall ye be consumed and wither away,
Because ye have forsaken the fountain of life.

⁷Woe to you who work unrighteousness
And deceit and blasphemy:
It shall be a memorial against you for evil.

⁸Woe to you, ye mighty,
Who with might oppress the righteous;
For the day of your destruction is coming.
In those days many and good days shall come to the righteous—in the day of your judgement.

Chapter 97

¹Believe, ye righteous, that the sinners will become a shame
And perish in the day of unrighteousness.

²Be it known unto you (ye sinners) that the Most High is mindful of your destruction,
And the angels of heaven rejoice over your destruction.

³What will ye do, ye sinners,
And whither will ye flee on that day of judgement,
When ye hear the voice of the prayer of the righteous?

⁴Yea, ye shall fare like unto them,
Against whom this word shall be a testimony:
"Ye have been companions of sinners."

⁵And in those days the prayer of the righteous shall reach unto the Lord,
And for you the days of your judgement shall come.

⁶And all the words of your unrighteousness shall be read out before the Great Holy One,
And your faces shall be covered with shame,
And He will reject every work which is grounded on unrighteousness.

⁷Woe to you, ye sinners, who live on the mid ocean and on the dry land,
Whose remembrance is evil against you.

⁸Woe to you who acquire silver and gold in unrighteousness and say:
"We have become rich with riches and have possessions;
And have acquired everything we have desired.

⁹And now let us do what we purposed:
For we have gathered silver,
9d And many are the husbandmen in our houses."
9e And our granaries are (brim) full as with water,

¹⁰Yea and like water your lies shall flow away;
For your riches shall not abide
But speedily ascend from you;
For ye have acquired it all in unrighteousness,
And ye shall be given over to a great curse.

Chapter 98

¹And now I swear unto you, to the wise and to the foolish,
For ye shall have manifold experiences on the earth.

²For ye men shall put on more adornments than a woman,
And coloured garments more than a virgin:
In royalty and in grandeur and in power,
And in silver and in gold and in purple,
And in splendour and in food they shall be poured out as water.

³Therefore they shall be wanting in doctrine and wisdom,
And they shall perish thereby together with their possessions;
And with all their glory and their splendour,
And in shame and in slaughter and in great destitution,
Their spirits shall be cast into the furnace of fire.

⁴I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, as a mountain has not become a slave,
And a hill does not become the handmaid of a woman,
Even so sin has not been sent upon the earth,
But man of himself has created it,
And under a great curse shall they fall who commit it.

⁵And barrenness has not been given to the woman,
But on account of the deeds of her own hands she dies without children.

⁶I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, by the Holy Great One,
That all your evil deeds are revealed in the heavens,
And that none of your deeds of oppression are covered and hidden.

⁷And do not think in your spirit nor say in your heart that ye do not know and that ye do not see that every sin is every day recorded in heaven in the presence of the Most High.

⁸From henceforth ye know that all your oppression wherewith ye oppress is written down every day till the day of your judgement.

⁹Woe to you, ye fools, for through your folly shall ye perish: and ye transgress against the wise, and so good hap shall not be your portion.

¹⁰And now, know ye that ye are prepared for the day of destruction: wherefore do not hope to live, ye sinners, but ye shall depart and die; for ye know no ransom; for ye are prepared for the day of the great judgement, for the day of tribulation and great shame for your spirits.

¹¹Woe to you, ye obstinate of heart, who work wickedness and eat blood:
Whence have ye good things to eat and to drink and to be filled?
From all the good things which the Lord the Most High has placed in abundance on the earth; therefore ye shall have no peace.

¹²Woe to you who love the deeds of unrighteousness: wherefore do ye hope for good hap unto yourselves? know that ye shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous, and they shall cut off your necks and slay you, and have no mercy upon you.

¹³Woe to you who rejoice in the tribulation of the righteous; for no grave shall be dug for you.

¹⁴Woe to you who set at nought the words of the righteous; for ye shall have no hope of life.

¹⁵Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write down their lies that men may hear them and act godlessly towards (their) neighbour.

¹⁶Therefore they shall have no peace but die a sudden death.

Chapter 99

¹Woe to you who work godlessness,
And glory in lying and extol them:
Ye shall perish, and no happy life shall be yours.

²Woe to them who pervert the words of uprightness,
And transgress the eternal law,
And transform themselves into what they were not into sinners:
They shall be trodden under foot upon the earth.

³In those days make ready, ye righteous, to raise your prayers as a memorial,
And place them as a testimony before the angels,
That they may place the sin of the sinners for a memorial before the Most High.

⁴In those days the nations shall be stirred up,
And the families of the nations shall arise on the day of destruction.

⁵And in those days the destitute shall go forth and carry off their children,
And they shall abandon them, so that their children shall perish through them:
Yea, they shall abandon their children (that are still) sucklings, and not return to them,
And shall have no pity on their beloved ones.

⁶And again I swear to you, ye sinners, that sin is prepared for a day of unceasing bloodshed.

⁷And they who worship stones, and grave images of gold and silver and wood and stone and clay, and those who worship impure spirits and demons, and all kinds of idols not according to knowledge, shall get no manner of help from them.

⁸And they shall become godless by reason of the folly of their hearts,
And their eyes shall be blinded through the fear of their hearts
And through visions in their dreams.

⁹Through these they shall become godless and fearful;
For they shall have wrought all their work in a lie,
And shall have worshiped a stone:
Therefore in an instant shall they perish.

¹⁰But in those days blessed are all they who accept the words of wisdom, and understand them,
And observe the paths of the Most High, and walk in the path of His righteousness,
And become not godless with the godless;
For they shall be saved.

¹¹Woe to you who spread evil to your neighbours;
For you shall be slain in Sheol.

¹²Woe to you who make deceitful and false measures,
And (to them) who cause bitterness on the earth;
For they shall thereby be utterly consumed.

¹³Woe to you who build your houses through the grievous toil of others,
And all their building materials are the bricks and stones of sin;
I tell you ye shall have no peace.

¹⁴Woe to them who reject the measure and eternal heritage of their fathers
And whose souls follow after idols;
For they shall have no rest.

¹⁵Woe to them who work unrighteousness and help oppression,
And slay their neighbours until the day of the great judgement.

¹⁶For He shall cast down your glory,
And bring affliction on your hearts,
And shall arouse His fierce indignation,
And destroy you all with the sword;
And all the holy and righteous shall remember your sins.

Chapter 100

¹And in those days in one place the fathers together with their sons shall be smitten
And brothers one with another shall fall in death
Till the streams flow with their blood.

²For a man shall not withhold his hand from slaying his sons and his sons' sons,
And the sinner shall not withhold his hand from his honoured brother:
From dawn till sunset they shall slay one another.

³And the horse shall walk up to the breast in the blood of sinners,
And the chariot shall be submerged to its height.

⁴In those days the angels shall descend into the secret places
And gather together into one place all those who brought down sin
And the Most High will arise on that day of judgement
To execute great judgement amongst sinners.

⁵And over all the righteous and holy He will appoint guardians from amongst the holy angels
To guard them as the apple of an eye,
Until He makes an end of all wickedness and all sin,
And though the righteous sleep a long sleep, they have nought to fear.

⁶And (then) the children of the earth shall see the wise in security,
And shall understand all the words of this book,
And recognize that their riches shall not be able to save them
In the overthrow of their sins.

⁷Woe to you, sinners, on the day of strong anguish,
Ye who afflict the righteous and burn them with fire:
Ye shall be requited according to your works.

⁸Woe to you, ye obstinate of heart,
Who watch in order to devise wickedness:
Therefore shall fear come upon you
And there shall be none to help you.

⁹Woe to you, ye sinners, on account of the words of your mouth,
And on account of the deeds of your hands which your godlessness as wrought,
In blazing flames burning worse than fire shall ye burn.

¹⁰And now, know ye that from the angels He will inquire as to your deeds in heaven, from the sun and from the moon and from the stars in reference to your sins because upon the earth ye execute judgement on the righteous.

¹¹And He will summon to testify against you every cloud and mist and dew and rain; for they shall all be withheld because of you from descending upon you, and they shall be mindful of your sins.

¹²And now give presents to the rain that it be not withheld from descending upon you, nor yet the dew, when it has received gold and silver from you that it may descend.

¹³When the hoar-frost and snow with their chilliness, and all the snow-storms with all their plagues fall upon you, in those days ye shall not be able to stand before them.

Chapter 101

¹Observe the heaven, ye children of heaven, and every work of the Most High, and fear ye Him and work no evil in His presence.

²If He closes the windows of heaven, and withholds the rain and the dew from descending on the earth on your account, what will ye do then?

³And if He sends His anger upon you because of your deeds, ye cannot petition Him; for ye spake proud and insolent words against His righteousness: therefore ye shall have no peace.

⁴And see ye not the sailors of the ships, how their ships are tossed to and fro by the waves, and are shaken by the winds, and are in sore trouble?

⁵And therefore do they fear because all their goodly possessions go upon the sea with them, and they have evil forebodings of heart that the sea will swallow them and they will perish therein.

⁶Are not the entire sea and all its waters, and all its movements, the work of the Most High, and has He not set limits to its doings, and confined it throughout by the sand?

⁷And at His reproof it is afraid and dries up, and all its fish die and all that is in it; But ye sinners that are on the earth fear Him not.

⁸Has He not made the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein? Who has given understanding and wisdom to everything that moves on the earth and in the sea?

⁹Do not the sailors of the ships fear the sea? Yet sinners fear not the Most High.

Chapter 102

¹In those days when He hath brought a grievous fire upon you,
Whither will ye flee, and where will ye find deliverance?
And when He launches forth His Word against you
Will you not be affrighted and fear?

²And all the luminaries shall be affrighted with great fear,
And all the earth shall be affrighted and tremble and be alarmed.

³And all the angels shall execute their commands
And shall seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Great Glory,
And the children of earth shall tremble and quake;
And ye sinners shall be cursed for ever,
And ye shall have no peace.

⁴Fear ye not, ye souls of the righteous,
And be hopeful ye that have died in righteousness.

⁵And grieve not if your soul into Sheol has descended in grief,
And that in your life your body fared not according to your goodness,
But wait for the day of the judgement of sinners
And for the day of cursing and chastisement.

⁶And yet when ye die the sinners speak over you:
"As we die, so die the righteous,
And what benefit do they reap for their deeds?

⁷Behold, even as we, so do they die in grief and darkness,
And what have they more than we?
From henceforth we are equal.

⁸And what will they receive and what will they see for ever?
Behold, they too have died,
And henceforth for ever shall they see no light."

⁹I tell you, ye sinners, ye are content to eat and drink, and rob and sin, and strip men naked, and acquire wealth and see good days.

¹⁰Have ye seen the righteous how their end falls out, that no manner of violence is found in them till their death?

¹¹"Nevertheless they perished and became as though they had not been, and their spirits descended into Sheol in tribulation."

Chapter 103

¹Now, therefore, I swear to you, the righteous, by the glory of the Great and Honoured and Mighty One in dominion, and by His greatness I swear to you:

²I know a mystery
And have read the heavenly tablets,
And have seen the holy books,
And have found written therein and inscribed regarding them:

³That all goodness and joy and glory are prepared for them,
And written down for the spirits of those who have died in righteousness,
And that manifold good shall be given to you in recompense for your labours,
And that your lot is abundantly beyond the lot of the living.

⁴And the spirits of you who have died in righteousness shall live and rejoice,
And their spirits shall not perish, nor their memorial from before the face of the Great One
Unto all the generations of the world: wherefore no longer fear their contumely.

⁵Woe to you, ye sinners, when ye have died,
If ye die in the wealth of your sins,
And those who are like you say regarding you:
'Blessed are the sinners: they have seen all their days.

⁶And how they have died in prosperity and in wealth,
And have not seen tribulation or murder in their life;
And they have died in honour,
And judgement has not been executed on them during their life."

⁷Know ye, that their souls will be made to descend into Sheol
And they shall be wretched in their great tribulation.

⁸And into darkness and chains and a burning flame where there is grievous judgement shall your spirits enter;
And the great judgement shall be for all the generations of the world.
Woe to you, for ye shall have no peace.

⁹Say not in regard to the righteous and good who are in life:
"In our troubled days we have toiled laboriously and experienced every trouble,
And met with much evil and been consumed,
And have become few and our spirit small.

¹⁰And we have been destroyed and have not found any to help us even with a word:
We have been tortured ⌈and destroyed⌉, and not hoped to see life from day to day.

¹¹We hoped to be the head and have become the tail:
We have toiled laboriously and had no satisfaction in our toil;
And we have become the food of the sinners and the unrighteous,
And they have laid their yoke heavily upon us.

¹²They have had dominion over us that hated us and smote us;
And to those that hated us we have bowed our necks
But they pitied us not.

¹³We desired to get away from them that we might escape and be at rest,
But found no place whereunto we should flee and be safe from them.

¹⁴And are complained to the rulers in our tribulation,
And cried out against those who devoured us,
But they did not attend to our cries
And would not hearken to our voice.

¹⁵And they helped those who robbed us and devoured us and those who made us few; and they concealed their oppression, and they did not remove from us the yoke of those that devoured us and dispersed us and murdered us, and they concealed their murder, and remembered not that they had lifted up their hands against us.

Chapter 104

¹I swear unto you, that in heaven the angels remember you for good before the glory of the Great One: and your names are written before the glory of the Great One.

²Be hopeful; for aforetime ye were put to shame through ill and affliction; but now ye shall shine as the lights of heaven, ye shall shine and ye shall be seen, and the portals of heaven shall be opened to you.

³And in your cry, cry for judgement, and it shall appear to you; for all your tribulation shall be visited on the rulers, and on all who helped those who plundered you.

⁴Be hopeful, and cast not away your hopes for ye shall have great joy as the angels of heaven.

⁵What shall ye be obliged to do? Ye shall not have to hide on the day of the great judgement and ye shall not be found as sinners, and the eternal judgement shall be far from you for all the generations of the world.

⁶And now fear not, ye righteous, when ye see the sinners growing strong and prospering in their ways: be not companions with them, but keep afar from their violence; for ye shall become companions of the hosts of heaven.

⁷And, although ye sinners say: "All our sins shall not be searched out and be written down," nevertheless they shall write down all your sins every day.

⁸And now I show unto you that light and darkness, day and night, see all your sins.

⁹Be not godless in your hearts, and lie not and alter not the words of uprightness, nor charge with lying the words of the Holy Great One, nor take account of your idols; for all your lying and all your godlessness issue not in righteousness but in great sin.

¹⁰And now I know this mystery, that sinners will alter and pervert the words of righteousness in many ways, and will speak wicked words, and lie, and practice great deceits, and write books concerning their words.

¹¹But when they write down truthfully all my words in their languages, and do not change or minish ought from my words but write them all down truthfully—all that I first testified concerning them.

¹²Then, I know another mystery, that books will be given to the righteous and the wise to become a cause of joy and uprightness and much wisdom.

¹³And to them shall the books be given, and they shall believe in them and rejoice over them, and then shall all the righteous who have learnt therefrom all the paths of uprightness be recompensed.'

Chapter 105

¹In those days the Lord bade (them) to summon and testify to the children of earth concerning their wisdom: Show (it) unto them; for ye are their guides, and a recompense over the whole earth.

²For I and My son will be united with them for ever in the paths of uprightness in their lives; and ye shall have peace: rejoice, ye children of uprightness. Amen.

Chapter 106

¹And after some days my son Methuselah took a wife for his son Lamech, and she became pregnant by him and bore a son.

²And his body was white as snow and red as the blooming of a rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks were white as wool, and his eyes beautiful. And when he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house like the sun, and the whole house was very bright.

³And thereupon he arose in the hands of the midwife, opened his mouth, and conversed with the Lord of righteousness.

⁴And his father Lamech was afraid of him and fled, and came to his father Methuselah.

⁵And he said unto him: 'I have begotten a strange son, diverse from and unlike man, and resembling the sons of the God of heaven; and his nature is different and he is not like us, and his eyes are as the rays of the sun, and his countenance is glorious.

⁶And it seems to me that he is not sprung from me but from the angels, and I fear that in his days a wonder may be wrought on the earth.

⁷And now, my father, I am here to petition thee and implore thee that thou mayest go to Enoch, our father, and learn from him the truth, for his dwelling-place is amongst the angels.'

⁸And when Methuselah heard the words of his son, he came to me to the ends of the earth; for he had heard that I was there, and he cried aloud, and I heard his voice and I came to him. And

¹said unto him: 'Behold, here am I, my son, wherefore hast thou come to me?'

⁹And he answered and said: 'Because of a great cause of anxiety have I come to thee, and because of a disturbing vision have I approached.

¹⁰And now, my father, hear me: unto Lamech my son there hath been born a son, the like of whom there is none, and his nature is not like man's nature, and the colour of his body is whiter than snow and redder than the bloom of a rose, and the hair of his head is whiter than white wool, and his eyes are like the rays of the sun, and he opened his eyes and thereupon lighted up the whole house.

¹¹And he arose in the hands of the midwife, and opened his mouth and blessed the Lord of heaven.

¹²And his father Lamech became afraid and fled to me, and did not believe that he was sprung from him, but that he was in the likeness of the angels of heaven; and behold I have come to thee that thou mayest make known to me the truth.'

¹³And I, Enoch, answered and said unto him: 'The Lord will do a new thing on the earth, and this I have already seen in a vision, and make known to thee that in the generation of my father Jared some of the angels of heaven transgressed the word of the Lord.

¹⁴And behold they commit sin and transgress the law, and have united themselves with women and commit sin with them, and have married some of them, and have begot children by them.

¹⁷And they shall produce on the earth giants not according to the spirit, but according to the flesh, and there shall be a great punishment on the earth, and the earth shall be cleansed from all impurity.

¹⁵Yea, there shall come a great destruction over the whole earth, and there shall be a deluge and a great destruction for one year.

¹⁶And this son who has been born unto you shall be left on the earth, and his three children shall be saved with him: when all mankind that are on the earth shall die [he and his sons shall be saved].

¹⁸And now make known to thy son Lamech that he who has been born is in truth his son, and call his name Noah; for he shall be left to you, and he and his sons shall be saved from the destruction, which shall come upon the earth on account of all the sin and all the unrighteousness, which shall be consummated on the earth in his days.

¹⁹And after that there shall be still more unrighteousness than that which was first consummated on the earth; for I know the mysteries of the holy ones; for He, the Lord, has showed me and informed me, and I have read (them) in the heavenly tablets.

Chapter 107

¹And I saw written on them that generation upon generation shall transgress, till a generation of righteousness arises, and transgression is destroyed and sin passes away from the earth, and all manner of good comes upon it.

²And now, my son, go and make known to thy son Lamech that this son, which has been born, is in truth his son, and that (this) is no lie.'

³And when Methuselah had heard the words of his father Enoch—for he had shown to him everything in secret—he returned and showed (them) to him and called the name of that son Noah; for he will comfort the earth after all the destruction.

Chapter 108

¹Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and for those who will come after him, and keep the law in the last days.

²Ye who have done good shall wait for those days till an end is made of those who work evil; and an end of the might of the transgressors.

³And wait ye indeed till sin has passed away, for their names shall be blotted out of the book of life and out of the holy books, and their seed shall be destroyed for ever, and their spirits shall be slain, and they shall cry and make lamentation in a place that is a chaotic wilderness, and in the fire shall they burn; for there is no earth there.

⁴And I saw there something like an invisible cloud; for by reason of its depth I could not look over, and I saw a flame of fire blazing brightly, and things like shining mountains circling and sweeping to and fro.

⁵And I asked one of the holy angels who was with me and said unto him: 'What is this shining thing? for it is not a heaven but only the flame of a blazing fire, and the voice of weeping and crying and lamentation and strong pain.'

⁶And he said unto me: 'This place which thou seest—here are cast the spirits of sinners and blasphemers, and of those who work wickedness, and of those who pervert everything that the Lord hath spoken through the mouth of the prophets—(even) the things that shall be.

⁷For some of them are written and inscribed above in the heaven, in order that the angels may read them and know that which shall befall the sinners, and the spirits of the humble, and of those who have afflicted their bodies, and been recompensed by God; and of those who have been put to shame by wicked men:

⁸Who love God and loved neither gold nor silver nor any of the good things which are in the world, but gave over their bodies to torture.

⁹Who, since they came into being, longed not after earthly food, but regarded everything as a passing breath, and lived accordingly, and the Lord tried them much, and their spirits were found pure so that they should bless His name.

¹⁰And all the blessings destined for them I have recounted in the books. And he hath assigned them their recompense, because they have been found to be such as loved heaven more than their life in the world, and though they were trodden under foot of wicked men, and experienced abuse and reviling from them and were put to shame, yet they blessed Me.

¹¹And now I will summon the spirits of the good who belong to the generation of light, and I will transform those who were born in darkness, who in the flesh were not recompensed with such honour as their faithfulness deserved.

¹²And I will bring forth in shining light those who have loved My holy name, and I will seat each on the throne of his honour.

¹³And they shall be resplendent for times without number; for righteousness is the judgement of God; for to the faithful He will give faithfulness in the habitation of upright paths.

¹⁴And they shall see those who were, born in darkness led into darkness, while the righteous shall be resplendent.

¹⁵And the sinners shall cry aloud and see them resplendent, and they indeed will go where days and seasons are prescribed for them.'

Sources and Limits

Scripture. All biblical quotations are from the King James Version (1611; standard 1769 text), which is in the public domain. Words the King James translators printed in italics are given in ordinary type.

The Book of Enoch. R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912; London: S.P.C.K., 1917). Public domain.

The Book of Jasher (companion volume). The Book of Jasher; Referred to in Joshua and Second Samuel. Faithfully Translated from the Original Hebrew into English (New York: M. M. Noah & A. S. Gould, 1840). Public domain.

Digital texts. The Enoch and Jasher texts were taken from the Scrollmapper open collection of extra-biblical writings (github.com/scrollmapper/bible_databases_deuterocanonical). The King James text was taken from a public-domain digital edition (github.com/thiagobodruk/bible).

Ancient writers cited. Josephus, Against Apion 1.8. Tertullian, Against Marcion 5.11 and 5.17; On Baptism 17. Origen, On First Principles 3.2.1. Jerome, On Illustrious Men 5. The Muratorian Fragment. Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–15a.

Limits of this volume. The historical notes were written from standard reference knowledge of these texts and were not individually checked against printed scholarly editions during compilation. Dates of composition for ancient works are scholarly estimates and are stated as such. Readers preparing material for publication or teaching should confirm the dates and attributions in Parts Two and Four against a current Bible dictionary or critical introduction.