THE BOOK OF ENOCH

PART FIVE

CHIEFLY FRAGMENTS FROM SOME OLDER BOOKS OF NOAH, BUT CONTINUING THE THIRD PARABLE OF ENOCH

Behemoth and Leviathan

CHAPTER LX

In the year 500,47 in the seventh month,48 on the fourteenth day of the month in the life of Enoch. In that Parable 49 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. And the Head of Days sat on the throne of His glory, and the angels and the righteous stood around Him.

And 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.

And 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; 47" The year 500." This date is drawn from Gen. v. 32, and is a date in the life of Noah, not of Enoch; so for 66 " read Enoch 66 Noah." 48" In the seventh month," etc., the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles according to the Levitical Law.

49"In that Parable,” unsuitable to the words "I saw," and so no doubt inserted by the interpolator. Read "in that vision.”

and He hath been merciful and long-suffering toward those who dwell on the earth. And when the day, and the power, and the punishment, and the judgment come, which the Lord of Spirits hath prepared for those who worship not the righteous law, and for those who deny the righteous judg ment, and for those who take His name in vain that day is prepared, for the elect a covenant, but for sinners an inquisition.

"When 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. Afterward the judgment shall take place according to His mercy and His patience."

And on that day 50 were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Duidain, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell, where my grandfather was taken up,51 the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Spirits created. And 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. And he said to me: "Thou son of man, herein

thou dost seek to know what is hidden."

And 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.

50 A fragment dealing with Creation myths. This strange fancy about Behemoth and Leviathan occurs first in Job xl., xli., but Jewish expounders find it also in Gen. i. 21; Ps. 1. 10; Isa. xxvii. 1.

51 Whether the earthly or the heavenly garden, it is empty in chapter xxxii., and the righteous are dead in the West, chapter xxii.; it is the abode of the righteous and elect in Enoch's and Noah's times, of the earliest fathers in Enoch's time, of Enoch and Elijah in Elijah's time, of Enoch in chapter lxv., and here. This passage and the LXX are the oldest witnesses for the translation of Enoch into Paradise.

And 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. And 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. For 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 though not one and undivided, they both go together through the spirit and separate not. For 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. And the spirit of the hoar-frost is his own angel, and the spirit of the hail is a good angel. And 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. And 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. And 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. And 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 dif

fused over the whole earth it unites with the water on the earth. And whensoever it unites with the water on the earth . . . For 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. And these things I saw toward the Garden of the Righteous. And the angel of peace who was with me said to me: "These two monsters, prepared conformably to the greatness of God, shall feed .. 99 52

The Judgment of the Righteous

CHAPTER LXI

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

And 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."

And 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 forever and ever.

"The elect shall begin to dwell with the elect,

And those are the measures which shall be given to faith And which shall strengthen righteousness.

"And 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,

52 The true text of the Parables is resumed, but the opening verses are difficult.

"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.

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

"And that one with the first words they blessed, And extolled and lauded with wisdom,

And they were wise in utterance and in the spirit of life.

"And 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.

"And 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 judgment 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.

"And 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 on 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 judgment 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 forever and ever.'