1 Enoch 56

1And I saw there the hosts of the angels of punishment going, and they held scourges and chains of iron and bronze.*LVI. 1-4. The Watchers and the demons are now judged. The demons, or 'beloved' (x. 12, xiv. 6), at last fill the valley. See liii. 1. 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. LVI. 5-8. Last Struggle of the Heathen Powers against Israel. 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.*5-LVII. 3ᵃ. Another section from the 'Elect One' source (see p. 169) which depicts the last struggle of the heathen powers against the Messianic kingdom set up in Jerusalem, and would suit lxxxiii-xc or xci-civ, but not xxxvii-lxix, where we have a superhuman Messiah with universal dominion, legions of angels, and the immediate presence of the Almighty, destroying all his enemies with the breath of his mouth. Not only is there a break in the context here, but the Parables deal only in general terms and avoid names and clear indications of date. Not Jerusalem, as here, but a new heaven and earth will be the seat of the kingdom. The date seems clear. The Syrians ceased to be formidable after 100 B.C.: while the Romans are not referred to here. Thus the Elect One Source, if this section belongs to it, may be fixed as written between 100-64 B.C.*The Gentiles are stirred up, not by God directly as in Ezek. xxxviii. 14-17, but by angels, as in Dan. x. 13 seqq. 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.*The attack fails, Zech. xii. 2, 3; the invaders disagree, Ezek. xxxviii. 21; Zech. xiv. 13; Hag. ii. 22, and destroy one another. Cf. c. 1-3. 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.’