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

242 The Booh of Enoch [Sect. V
3. Therefore tliey shall be wanting in doctrine and wisdom,
And they shall perish thereby together with their
possessions ;
And with all their glory and their splendour,
And in shame and in slaughter and in great destitution,
Their spirits shall be cast into the furnace of fire.
4. I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, as a mountain has not
become a slave,
And a hill does not become the handmaid of a woman.
Even so sin has not been sent upon the earth.
But man of himself has created it,
And under a great curse shall they fall who commit it.
5. And barrenness has not been given to the woman.
But on account of the deeds of her own hands she dies
without children.
6. I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, by the Holy Great One,
That all your evil deeds are revealed in the heavens.
And that none of your deeds of oppression are covered and
hidden.
7. And do not think in your spirit nor say in your heart that
ye do not know and that ye do not see that every sin is
lose itself in them, as water is lost in suggested by the fact that "ID (
the earth. 3. In great destitu- 'mountain') is masculine in Hebrew
tion. In contrast to their wealth in this and nV3J (='hill') is feminine. In
world. Their spirits: cf.ver, 10; 103*. Aramaic we have "I1Q and XOI. 5.
Into the furnace of fire (3 13, /3) . > An J as a consequence of their sin men
mqlii. Cf. Matt. 13*^1 . As incorporeal are punished just because sin is a
spirits the wicked are cast into hell. voluntary thing. The instance in the
This 'furnace of fire ' is the final place text is chosen as an illustration of this
of punishment. 4. The writer now general law ; cf. Hos. 9^*. Barren-
proceeds to attack the immoral A'iew uess (te, $—n^), gigmq, n^ ' simula-
that sin is something original and un- tion', or ' excuse'. 6-8. The writer
avoidable. Sin was of man's own de- next deals with the view that God does
vising: see 69'' (note). Yet the writer nut concern Himself with the world
still ascribes the introduction of sin or the deeds of men, of. Job 22''
into the world to the fallen angels; Ps. 73", and declares that the deeds
cf. 100*. The contrast of mountain of men are recorded every day in
and slave and hill and handmaid is heaven. 6. Holy G-reat One ig^iit)'
=