1 Enoch 52

LII. The Seven Metal Mountains and the Elect One.

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—*The mountains, and the metals symbolize the future kingdoms of the world. In Dan. ii. 31-45 the metals have this meaning, but the mountain is the Messianic kingdom. This chapter, however, seems to contain two independent documents. In verses 1-4 the mountains serve to exalt the Messiah's dominion, in 5-9 they are destroyed before his presence. Again, verse 4 and verse 5 give two independent answers to verse 3. Of the two sources suggested by Beer for the Parables, verses 3-4 thus belong to the Son of Man source, verses 5-9 the Elect One source. Verses 1-2 are common to both sources. 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.*We expect seven mountains here. Five are given in lxvii. 4, and tin is added in lii. 8. Cf. Origen, Contra Celsum, vi. 22 for the gates of the seven metals in the mysteries of Mithra. 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.’*These world powers show the Messiah's might by melting before him, as metals before the fire. 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.*No metal will avail as ransom or weapon. 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.’