1 Enoch 60

Book of Noah—a Fragment. LX. Quaking of the Heaven: Behemoth and Leviathan: the Elements.

1In the year 500, 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.*One of the Noachic fragments. See liv. 7 (note), also notes on lx. 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, etc.*This date is drawn from Gen. v. 32, and is a date in the life of Noah, not of Enoch; so for ' Enoch ' read ' Noah'.*the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles according to the Levitical Law. 2And the Head of Days sat on the throne of His glory, and the angels and the righteous stood around Him.*could hardly have been before God's throne before the Deluge, as few if any righteous had as yet died. 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.*Cf. Dan. v. 6, viii. 17, x. 9, 10. Michael as chief archangel (xl. 4, 9) sends 'the angel of peace' (v. 24). 5And 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.’*Cf. 4 Ezra vii. 37. The Deluge has here features belonging properly to the Messianic judgement of the Parables. 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.*i.e. Creation.*7-10. 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. l. 10; Isa. xxvii. 1. See 4 Ezra vi. 49-52; 2 Bar. xxix. 4, where these monsters are to be the food of the righteous in the Messianic age. See too Weber, Jud. Theol. 202, 389, 402.*7-9, 24. Both 4 Ezra vi. 49-52 and 2 Bar. xxix. 4 seem to have drawn on our text. 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.*Cf. 'land of Nod' Gen. iv. 16. See Jewish Encyc. viii. 39.*See xxxii. 3 (note). Whether the earthly or the heavenly garden, it is empty in xxxii. 3-6, and the righteous dead are in the West xxii; it is the abode of the righteous and elect in Enoch's and Noah's times, lxi. 12, lx. 8, 23: of the earliest fathers in Enoch's time, lxx. 2-4; of Enoch and Elijah in Elijah's time, lxxxix. 52; of Enoch in lxv. 2 (see - note), and here. This passage (lx. 8) and the LXX are the oldest witnesses for the translation of Enoch into Paradise. Cf. Latin version of Sir. xliv. 16, Ethiopic of Gen. v. 24. See Weber, L.d.T. 251. 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.*11-13. A long account about physical secrets. The answer to v. 9 comes in v. 24 and is given by the angel of peace. 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.*The powers of nature are personified or regarded as conscious intelligences. Cf. Jubilees ii. 2 'angels of the spirit of fire', etc; Rev. vii. 1, 2, xiv. 18, xix. 17; Asc. Isa. iv. 18. 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. 16And 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.*The ebb and flow of the sea, which is also supposed to supply the springs in the mountains 17And the spirit of the hoar-frost is his own angel, and the spirit of the hail is a good angel.*Hail often hurts, but yet is not in charge of a demon. 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.*Unlike the previous phenomena, mist appears in all seasons, and by night and by day. 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.*The dew dwells at the ends of the heaven. Cf. xxxiv. 1,2; xxxvi. 1 and lxxv. 5. 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 . . .*The rain is so important for the well-being of man (Job xxxvii. 12, 13) that its spirit is not independent, but subordinated to the angels. Cf. Job xxviii. 26, xxxviii. 25-8. 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 . . .*goes back to v. 9. The angel of peace is out of place here. See vv. 4, 9, 11. 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.’*i.e. after the Deluge. Cf. Gen. viii. 21, 22; En. lx. 5 (note). There is a dittograph preceding this verse 'in order that the punishment of the Lord of Spirits may not be (bcx: 'may not come' e; all other MSS. omit negative and verb) in vain and may slay the children with their mothers and the children with their fathers'. Before the last sentence 'Afterwards,...' all MSS. insert another dittograph' when the punishment of the Lord of Spirits shall rest upon these'.