1 Enoch 67

LXVII. God’s Promise to Noah: Places of Punishment of the Angels and of the Kings.

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.*In lxxxix. 1, Noah himself makes the ark. 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.*borrowed from lii. 1. It increases the geographical confusion.*LXVII. 4 – LXIX. 1. This section deals with the fallen angels' punishment. Characteristic features of the second judgement are here transferred to the first, and localities distinct in the parables are here confused, e.g. the burning valley of Gehenna is placed among the metal mountains (lxvii. 4), while in liv. 1 it is in 'another part of the earth'. 4. The Deluge and the judgement of the fallen angels are mentioned together here as in x. 2, 4, but here (1) the prison is the burning valley (= the Gehenna of liv, though there it is a furnace of fire that receives the angels), and (2) this is the preliminary prison, not the final. 5And I saw that valley in which there was a great convulsion and a convulsion of the waters.*5, 6. Features of the Deluge, and volcanic disturbances are combined, the latter connected with the angels' punishment. 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.*A subterranean fire was believed to exist under the Gehenna valley. Cf. xxvii. 1 (note). Cf. too the fate of Sodom. 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.*those of the writer.*i.e. in the final judgement.*At present the sin of their spirit entails suffering on the body only, which is healed by the waters, but in Gehenna spirit and body alike will suffer.*i.e. can read their future torments in the present ones of the angels.*The hot springs result from the meeting of the water and fire underground by which the angels were punished. Herod the Great resorted to such a spring, Callirhoe to the east of the Dead Sea, Joseph. Ant. xvii. 6, 5. Cf. the hot springs of Machaerus, Joseph. Bell. Iud. vii. 6. 3. 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.*The kings will repent under torment, but without avail. 10For the judgement shall come upon them, because they believe in the lust of their body and deny the Spirit of the Lord.*This phrase is unique in Enoch. 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.*With the angel's departure the waters cool. Cf. Origen, c. Celsum v. 52. 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.*The waters heal now, and their healing virtue blinds the kings to the fire below which is reserved for their future torment. Cf. v. 8.