The book of Enoch : translated from Professor Dillmann's Ethiopic ...

1 44 The Book of Enoch. [Sect. II.
instruments of Satan. 4. And I asked the angel of peace
who went with me, ' These instruments, for whom are they
preparing them ? '
5. And he said unto me ( They are for
the kings and the mighty of the earth, that they may thereby
be destroyed. 6. And after this the Righteous and Elect
One will cause the house of his congregation to appear :
henceforth they will no more be hindered, in the name of the
Lord of Spirits. 7. And these mountains will not stand
fast as the earth before his righteousness, and the hills will
be as a fountain of water, and the righteous will have rest
from the oppression of sinners.'
LIV. 1. And I looked and turned to another part of the
©.Pftl^^VOT.. So also G, but with verbs in sing. The reading of
BCD and also F L N adopted by Din. ' going and preparing
KlHl M)fl*4« seems to be an attempted emendation of the text.
5. They are for the kings. So GM. Other MSS. and Din.
read 'They are preparing them for the kings.' The mighty
of the earth. So G. Other MSS. give The mighty of this
earth.' 6. Henceforth. G omits ; M supports. 7. And these
mountains will not stand. So all MSS. but B C which omit the
negative. Din. follows B C. Before His righteousness. So
G ftvG-*. Din. gives 7& < Before His face.' M (lhm>! 8\£"*.
liv. 2. 6. House of his con- shall be as a fount of water : cf. lii. 6.
gregation : see xxxviii. 1 (note). The The earth's great ones will become
phrase here is in the singular : in liii. strengthless and vanish at thepresence
6 it is in the plural. There is ap- of the Messiah.
parently no significance in the dif- LIV. In liii the writer described
ference. The houses of his congrega- the scene of the judgment and the
tions are the synagogues : cf. Ps. fetters that were being prepared to
lxxiv. 8. 7. The mountains . . . bind the kings on their condemnation,
and hills: see Crit. Note. There is Here he speaks of Gehenna into which
a return here to the figurative Ian- the kings are cast ; they are punished
guage of lii. The mountains and the in the sight of the righteous : cf. lxii.
hills are symbols of the world powers 12. The fallen angels are cast into
as personated in the kings and the a furnace of fire. The idea of the
mighty. Before the Messiah's right- fallen angels and the kings being
eousness, the mountains (i.e. the judged together is to be traced to
kings) will not be like the earth which Is. xxiv. 21, 22. 1. To another
abidethforeverjPs.lxxviii.69; Eccles. part of the earth. The writer now
i. 4 : and the hills (i. e. the mighty) turns from the valley of Jehoshaphat