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

Sect.V Chapter CVIIL 4-11 271
read them and know that which shall befall the sinners, and the
spirits of the humble, and of those who have afflicted their
bodies, and been recompensed by God ; and of those who have
been put to shame by wicked men : 8. Who love God and
loved neither gold nor silver nor any of the good things which
are in the world, but gave over their bodies to torture. 9.
Who, since they came into being, longed not after earthly food,
but regarded everything as a passing breath, and lived accord-
ingly, and the Lord tried them much, and their spirits were
found pure so that they should bless His name. 10. And all
the blessings destined for them I have recounted in the books.
And He hath assigned them their recompense, because they have
been found to be such as loved heaven more than their life in
the world, and though they were trodden under foot of wicked
men, and experienced abuse and reviling from them and were put
to shame, yet they blessed Me. 11. And now I will summon the
spirits of the good who belong to the generation of light, and
are also called the book of the holy
ones, for their purpose is to acquaint
the angels with the future ; cf. 103'*.
See also Asc. Is. 7". 7-9. The
humble. These are the D^*3V and
D^ljy so often referred to in the Psalms.
They constitute the true Israel as op-
posed to the proud, tlie selfish, and the
paganizers ; see Cheyne on Ps. 9^'.
Those who have afflicted their
bodies, loved neither gold nor sil-
ver, longed not after earthly food.
These phrases would apply well to the
Essene party ; cf. 48' 102". These cha-
racteiistics of the righteous have their
counterpart in those of the wicked ; cf.
966-7 978-10 982. 7. Head (int, $)
gigqu 'place'. 8. Loved (a, 0c(lnoyih).ig,
crlnoyfi 'love'. 9. Who
(igq reading 'gUa). Of this 17 gives a
corruption 'alia and mfl 'SUfi. u reads
' and ' and /3 ' and who '. Everything
(tt), i.e. everything in this world, ^g
reads ' their bodies'. But to compare their
bodies to ' a passing breath ' would
be
rather inapt, gmql, read 'them-
selves '. But the righteous could not
rightly regard themselves as a 'passing
breath'. Yet see James 4'* drfiU
•yip carf. Such language would more
rightly befit the sinners, as in Wisdom
2^~*, where the sinners declare
that their ' spirit shall be dispersed
as thin air' and their 'life shall pass
away as the traces of a cloud ' and
' scattered as is a mist ' Similarly in
Job 7'' ' ' remember that my life
is wind ... as the cloud . . . vanisheth
away so he that goeth down to
Sheol shall come up no more'. How
the various readings in the text arose
I cannot explain. The Lord tried
them much, &c. Cf. Wisd. 3« 5
detis kireipaffey avToiis teal €vp€v ai/TOvi
ODIOUS tavTov. 10. Enoch speaks, and
refers his hearers and readers to his
books. Their life in the world :
of. 48'. 11. Verses 11 and 12 are
represented as being spoken by God.
Generation of light : of. 61'^ (note)