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

Sect.lY] Chapters LXXXIX. 75 -AT'. 5 205
severally completed their periods as did the first; and others
received them into their hands to pasture them for their period,
each shepherd in his own period. 3. And after that I saw in
my vision all the birds of heaven coming, the eagles, the vultures,
the kites, the ravens ; but the eagles led all the birds ; and they
began to devour those sheep, and to pick out their eyes and to
devour their flesh. 3. And the sheep cried out because their
flesh was being devoured by the birds, and as for me I looked
and lamented in my sleep over that shepherd who pastured the
sheep. 4. And I saw until those sheep were devoured by
the dogs and eagles and kites, and they left neither flesh nor
skin nor sinew remaining on them till only their bones stood
there :
and their bones too fell to the earth and the sheep became
few. 5. And I saw until that twenty-three had undertaken
the pasturing and completed in their several periods fifty-eight
times.
12 + 23 + 23 = 58. As did the first.
As the twelve had duly completed their
times, so likewise did the rest of the
thirty-five. Others received them.
These words mark the transition to the
Greek period. This period extends
ft-om the time of Alexander, 333, to
the establishment of the Messianic
kingdom. It falls into two divisions
—
the first constituted by the Graeoo-
Egyptian domination over Palestine,
333-200, during which twenty-three
shepherds hold sway; and the second
constituted by the Graeco-Sjrian
domination over Palestine from 200
till the establishment of the Messianic
kingdom. During the fourth division
twelve shepherds bear sway. 2.
The new world-power—that of the
Greeks, i. b. Graeco-Egyptian and
Graeoo-Syrian—is fittingly represented
by a diflFerent order of the animal
kingdom, namely, by birds of prey.
The 'eagles' are the Greeks or
Macedonians. The ' ravens ', as we
see from vv. 8, 9, 12, are the Syrians
under the Seleucidae. Tlie ' vultures
and ' kites ' must stand for the
Egyptians under the Ptolemies. Verses
2-i deal with the Graeco-Egyptian
domination. Yet the ' ravens ', i. e.
the Syrians, are mentioned once, and
the reason is obvious, for the Syrians
frequently contested the Egyptian
supremacy over Palestine, and in all
these struggles Palestine suffered
severely. It was as Josephus says,
' like to a ship in a, storm which is
tossed by the waves on both sides,'
Ani. xii. 3. 3. My vision {a-m).
m, $ ' the vision'. 3. 'Was being
devoured (a-«). u, ' was devoured '.
I looked (gqu). ' m 1 saw \ t, 'I
.cried out'. 4. The dogs. Ac-
cording to 89".