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

290 The Book of Enoch. [Sect.V.
every work of the Most High, and fear ye Him and work no
evil in His presence. 1. "When He closes the windows of
1
heaven and withholds the rain and the dew from descending
on the earth on your account, what will ye do then ? 3.
And when He sends His anger upon you because of all your
deeds, ye cannot petition Him ; for ye have spoken proud
and insolent words against His righteousness : therefore ye
will have no peace. 4. And see ye not the sailors of the
ships, how their ships are tossed to and fro by the waves and
are shaken by the winds and are in sore trouble ? 5. And
therefore do they fear because all their goodly possessions go
into the sea with them, and they are anxious of heart lest the
sea should swallow them and they should perish therein. 6.
Are not the entire sea, and all its waters, and all its move-
ments the work of the Most High and all its doings and its
waters, and has He not confined it throughout by the sand ?
Pear ye. G gives Wl/* His ways/ 3. Because of. So G M ft.
G 1
omits. Other MSS. 'and upon/ 4. Sailors of the ships.
I have here and in ver. 9 accepted Hallevi's emendation of ' kings
of the ships ' into c
sailors of the ships/ The false reading arose
from a confusion of nfrjKJJ *$© with "KH *gjft 5. G G 1 M for
CDWX read U*£J&; (D, and G repeats ^flrtilFtfD*—QrhC through
homoioteleuton. 6. And its waters. So G G 1 M (DaH^. E K&ao. Other MSS. rhttn> ' has He not sealed all its doings V
This last, which Din. follows, is obviously a late conjecture.
moment to address the righteous who instances of such insolent speech, cf.
are here called ' children of heaven,' xcviii. 7, 8 ; cii. 6. 4-7. They who
as elsewhere sinners are called 'children go down to the sea in ships are filled
of earth' : cf. c. 6 ; cii. 3. The con- with fear at the might of the sea:
templation of heaven and of nature how much more should not men fear
and of the ends they serve should God by whom the sea has been made
move them to the fear of God. 2, and of whom it is sore afraid ? 4.
3. The writer resumes his address to Sailors of the ships : see Crit. Note.
the wicked and recurs to the subject For the thought of the verse Ps. cvii.
cf. c. n, 12. "Windows of heaven 23-27. 6, 7. The sea can do
Gen. vii. 11. Proud and insolent nothing save according to divine coinwords
: v. 4 (note) ; xxvii. 2. As mand. Its doings and its waters :