1 Enoch 95

XCV. Enoch’s Grief: fresh Woes against the Sinners.

1Oh that mine eyes were [a cloud of] waters That I might weep over you, And pour down my tears as a cloud †of waters†: That so I might rest from my trouble of heart!*From Jer. ix. 1. Quoted by 2 Bar. xxxv. 2. 2†Who has permitted you to practise reproaches and wickedness? And so judgement shall overtake you, sinners.†*g,β (=מי נתנכם). But a-g read, and possibly rightly, 'Oh that ye were' (=מי יתנכם). Then, either omitting with g 'to practise', or emending it to 'become', and adopting the subjunctive in the next line with β, and not the indicative in ɑ, we have: Oh that ye were become a reproach and an evil, And that so judgement might overtake you, sinners. 3Fear not the sinners, ye righteous; For again will the Lord deliver them into your hands, That ye may execute judgement upon them according to your desires.*as in the first Maccabean victories. Though now even the Maccabean princes are Sadducees, the righteous will again prevail. 4Woe to you who fulminate anathemas which cannot be reversed: Healing shall therefore be far from you because of your sins.*Cf. viii. 3. Magical practices and incantations are referred to, but the expression is strange. 5Woe to you who requite your neighbour with evil; For ye shall be requited according to your works. 6Woe to you, lying witnesses, And to those who weigh out injustice, For suddenly shall ye perish. 7Woe to you, sinners, for ye persecute the righteous; For ye shall be delivered up and persecuted because of injustice, And heavy shall its yoke be upon you.