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

Sect. IV.] Chapters LXXXIX. yo — XC. i. 247
and not pure. 74. And besides all (this) the eyes of
these sheep were blinded so that they saw not, and the eyes
of their shepherds likewise ;
and they were delivered in large
numbers to their shepherds for destruction, and they trampled
the sheep with their feet and devoured them. 7J. And the
Lord of the sheep remained unmoved till all the sheep were
dispersed over the field and mingled with them (i. e. the beasts),
and they (i.e. the shepherds) did not save them out of the
hand of the beasts. 76. And he who wrote the book
brought it up, and showed it and re'ad it before the Lord
of the sheep, and implored Him on their account, and be-
sought Him, as he showed Him all the doings of those
shepherds, and gave testimony before Him against all the
shepherds. 77. And he took this book and laid it down
beside Him and departed.
XC. 1. And I saw until that in this manner thirty-six
ftftt; X1H: J&i-nC: . . . WXA.
76. Before the Lord. So G,
(THl: hVUh. Instead of (11(1 Din. gives 1(1: fcOft, which against
the order of the words he is obliged to connect with an earlier
verb :
' brought it up to the habitation of the Lord of the sheep.'
M hJlf't. Implored Him on their ac6ount, and besought
Him. Repeated in G with a slight variation. Other variations
in M. Gave testimony. G M read J&rto r
7J&.
XC. 1. Thirty-six. According to MSS. it is doubtful whether
of this section on the Persian period ship was conducted by an unworthy
a judgment certainly justified by the and heathenised hierarchy. 75.
few details that survive of that Israel sinned still further in mingling
period : see Ewald's History of Israel, among the heathen nations. This is
v. 204-206. The author of the Assump- the beginning of the 'dispersion.'
tion of Moses—a Zealot writing about 77. Here the second period closes
the beginning of the Christian era with the fall of the Persian power,
says that the two tribes grieved on XC. 1. Thirty-six. This must be
their return • because they could not an error of the MSS. for thirty-five,
offer sacrifices to the God of their The Ethiopic is far from being above
fathers,' iv. 8 — the author therein reproach in this respect. The thirty-
implying that the sacrifices of the five gives the sum of the two periods
second temple were no true sacrifices already dealt with, i.e. 12 + 23, just
because the nation was under the su- as in xc. 5 at the close of the third
premacy of the heathen, and its wor- period the three periods are summed