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

104 The Booh of Enoch [Sect. II
T/ie Vallei/ of Judgement : the Angels of Vunishmerit
Communities of the Meet One.
LIII. 1. There mine eyes saw a deep valley with open mouths,
and all who dwell on the earth and sea and islands shall bring to
him gifts and presents and tokens of homage, but that deep
valley shall not become full.
2. And their hands commit lawless deeds,
And the sinners devour all whom they lawlessly oppress
Yet the sinners shall be destroyed before the face of the
Lord of Spirits,
And they shall be banished from off the face of His earth.
And they shall perish for ever and ever.
3. For I saw all the angels of punishment abiding (there) and
LIII. 1. The deep valley here is
that of Jehoshaphat, where, according
to Joel 3'> ''', God was to assemble and
judge the Gentiles. The valley of
Jehoshaphat (Joel 3^> i^) is rendered in
Theodotion by the phrase rfivx&pav ttjs
Kphims and by the Targ. Jon. Ti'"'t3
S'Sn 31^D(= ' the plain of the decision
of judgement'). According to the
Midrash Mishle, 68'', God will judge the
whole world in this valley. (Weber,
JUcl. TTieol. 395.) Since the fourth cent,
this valley has generally been identified
with that of the Kidron. But many
scholars are of opinion that it was not
originally a geographical designation.
In the Midrash TilUm, viii (Neubauer,
Geog , p. 51) it is stated that no such
valley exists (tDD'i'ini IDtf'B' pDV ]''«)
See Encyc. Bib. ii. 2353. All those
who dwell upon earth will bring gifts
and presents to the Messiah to win a
favourable judgement; but these will
be of no avail (of. 52'). The idea of
the nations and the rich men of the
earth bringing gifts to the Messiah is
a favourite one in the Talmud, Weber
(386-387). There (a-2). 2,j8'and
.
the
there'. Deep valley with open
mouths {mqlu, 0-«). g ' open and
deep-mouthed valley '. 2. Sinners
devour all whom they lawlessly
oppress. So I render this line, emending
jSsamSwfi into jgsamawd. That
this is the meaning of the text appears
to follow from the last words of this
chapter, 53', ' the oppression of sinners,'
The verb ' oppress ', samavva, is formed
from the noun sama, used in 53'. If
we do not emend, the sense is poor and
needs supplementing :
' sinners lawlessly
devour all that they (? who) produce.'
Banished from off the face of His
earth: see 38^ (note). And they
shall perish. All MSS. insert a
negative : if it is retained the text must
' be rendered : And they shall not cease.'
3. Angels of punishment: see 40'
(note). These angels apparently pre-
pare the chains and fetters for the kings
and the mighty in the valley of Jeho-
shaphat where the kings are to be
judged. The chains for the fallen
angels are forged in Gehenna, 5i^~^.
The kings are then taken and cast into
Gehenna, 5i^. Abiding {mqt {go)
: