the-book-of-enoch-r-h-charles - Fallen Angels

Sect. IT] Chapter XLVL 4-7 89
Nor humbly acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed
upon them.
6. And he shall put down the countenance of the strong,
And shall fill them with shame.
And darkness shall be their dwellings
And worms shall be their bed,
And they shall have no hope of rising from their beds.
Because they do not extol the name of the Lord of Spirits.
7. And these are they who f j'^'^g'^f the stars of heaven,
[And raise their hands against the Most High],
f And tread upon the earth and dwell upon it f.
And all their deeds manifest unrighteousness,
Ps. 3^ 58«. 5. Acknowledge
whence the kingdom, &c. Cf. Wisd.
6^-3 hyojTicraaOe ol KparovvT^s ttKtj$ovs
, . , oTt €d66q Trapa ToC Kvpiou ij KpaTrjffis
i/uv, Rom. 13^. 6. "Worms shall
be their bed. Cf.Is. 14". In 2 Mace.
9"! " it is said that Antioehus Eplphanes
died of the disease here referred to.
But the expression is best taken figura-
tively of the destruction awaiting the
oppressors of the righteous ; cf. Is. 66^^
Judith 16" Sir. 7" Mark 9^8. Worms
. . . their bed . . . Because they do
not extol. Cf. Acts 1223 for a like
connexion of thought. 7. Tins
verse seems very corrupt. It is clearly
an echo of Dan. 8^°, where it is said of
' Antioehus Epiphanes : And (the little
horn) waxed great, even to the host of
heaven ; and some of the ho.st and of
the stars it cast down to tlie ground
and trod upon them.' Here also the
stars stand for the righteous, and the
verb ' tread ' recalls ' trod ' in Daniel,
and the parallel suggests that ' tread
had the same meaning in Enoch that it
liad in Daniel. In other words we
should find it stated that the oppressors
' tread down the righteous ' and not
that they ' tread the earth '. Thus
46'° connects immediately with 46'°.
In other words 47"^ is either displaced
'
or interpolated. That it is the latter I
conclude, since we require here, not a
tristioh, but a distich like the immediate
stanzas before and after, and since
the divine designation ' Most High ' does
not occur elsewhere in the Parables.
I have obelized ' judge '. It = li''T,
which may be corrupt for IT'^V (or
V''Si as in Dan. 8^") = ' cast down '.
This brings our text into line with
Dan. 8^° ''. Finally, ' and dwell upon
the earth ' may be
- wrong gloss on
the preceding words ; for this clause,
which has always good ethical asso-
ciations in the Parables (37'' note), has
here a bad ethical sense. But probably
a corruption inheres in
' and dwell
upon it ' : i. e. HD 13C1 corrupt for
iT'DE'V = ' those who dwell upon it.'
As for what remains, ' and they tread
upon the earth,' a glance at Dan. 8^"
shows that an accusative referring to
the righteous has here been lost '
: and
tread to the earth those who dwell
upon it.' Thus this stanza should
run :
—
' And these are they who cast down
the stars of heaven,
And tread to the earth those who
dwell upon it.'
Manifest, o-i/, clefhTdy ^a. > gjl). (^
abcox ' and manifest '• All MSS. but