An Overview + Reading of 1 Enoch: The Book of the Watchers - Episode 107

Carey Griffel: [00:00:00] Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot, where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and today I'm going to give you a brief overview of the Book of Enoch, and I'm going to do a read through of the Book of the Watchers, which is the first part of First Enoch.

Now, I know that a lot of my listeners are already really familiar with the Book of Enoch. You may have already read it before. You may have read it many times. But I know that a lot of my listeners are either just vaguely familiar with the book of Enoch or have kind of a splattering of knowledge about it, and many of you haven't read it. And I've read other ancient material, so I figure I might as well read the Book [00:01:00] of Enoch as well, particularly the Book of the Watchers, because that has a lot to do with what I have been talking about lately, and with what I want to be talking about here in the near future, it's gonna give content to help understand the flood narrative, at least according to some people, at some period of time. And I really do think this material informs the New Testament authors.

But at the same time, the book of 1 Enoch, if you just pick it up and you read it, first of all, it's a bit confusing and it's just really overwhelming. Also if you're not aware of all of the manuscript traditions and the historical chronology of its writing and all of these other things you're really gonna not quite understand what it is and how we got it. So today, we're going to be touching on quite a few basics about the book before we read it and in future episodes we can do some more comparisons. We [00:02:00] can talk about the book of Enoch through time and things like that.

And I think it's really important to talk about this as well, because if you just pick up the Book of Enoch and read it, and think that this was the way it has existed at all times, you're gonna be mistaken about what it is, because it was not just written in one form in the way that we have it written today. There are different segments, different books, we might say, within the book of 1 Enoch itself. That's going to play into what I'm going to talk about with canonicity and all of that kind of thing as well.

The earliest copy that we have that is complete of the book that we call 1st Enoch, is in the Ethiopic language. And as I said, there's distinct books within it, and these books are not ordered in the way that they were chronologically written.

But before I talk about that, I want to disambiguate between 1st Enoch, [00:03:00] 2nd Enoch, and 3rd Enoch. These are completely different books. What we call the book of First Enoch is a series of apocalyptic visions. It is about the character of Enoch from Genesis. And he has these visions and these experiences. And First Enoch was chronologically written earlier.

Second Enoch is also known as Slavonic Enoch, or the Book of the Secrets of Enoch. This is also an apocalyptic text, and it contains rewritten sections of Genesis 5. It kind of expands this section of the Old Testament. It was definitely written later.

Third Enoch is also known as the Sefer Hekalot or the Book of Palaces. Again it's an apocalyptic text and it is supposedly the first person account of Rabbi Ishmael as he ascends through six [00:04:00] palaces of heaven, and he encounters an angelic figure, and this figure describes himself as previously being named Enoch.

Okay, so they get a little bit crazier as time goes on. There are also some other related books that people are going to talk about in the Enochic tradition. There is a longer version of the Astronomical Book which is inside of First Enoch. There's a copy of this in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Then there is the Book of Giants, which is related to the Book of Enoch and the stories there. And as I've talked about before, we have the Book of Jubilees. It's grouped in this Enochic tradition because it has similar themes to First Enoch.

Okay, so within the book of First Enoch, in the order that we have it today, we have the Book of the Watchers, which is chapters one through 36. It is one [00:05:00] of the earlier parts of the Book of Enoch. It might not be the earliest part.

Then we have the Similitudes or the parables of Enoch. This is chapters 37 to 71. This was written later, and it has a lot of messianic themes to it. And so, there's a lot of people who say that it was written after Christ, but it's a little bit fuzzy. We don't have any of the parables of Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls, for one thing. But that doesn't mean it was written by Christians, necessarily. That is going to be a topic for another episode because it deserves its own treatment.

The third book within First Enoch is called the Astronomical Book. This is chapters 72 to 82. The Astronomical Book, has a longer version in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And it might be the earliest part of first Enoch that was written.

[00:06:00] The fourth part of first Enoch is called The Book of Dreams. This is chapters 83 through 90.

Then the last part is the Epistle of Enoch, chapters 91 through 1 0 8, and within the Epistle of Enoch, we have the Apocalypse of Weeks, which is 93, 1 through 10, and 91, 11 through 17. And the last two chapters, 106 to 108, is kind of an epilogue.

Okay, so that's the basic breakdown of what we have in First Enoch. And as I said, we're going to be talking about and reading the Book of the Watchers. I'll be describing some of the things that I'm going to be reading to help make it a little bit easier to listen to, I think.

Now there are different translations of this book, and to be honest, I'm not reading the best translation. But I'm going to choose this one to read because it's in the public domain, [00:07:00] which means it's absolutely accessible to anybody to find this copy, so that you can read along with me if you want.

And the other reason I have chosen this version to read is because it is the version that Dr. Michael Heiser uses in his book, A Companion to the Book of Enoch. He did two reader's commentaries. This is volume one that contains the Book of the Watchers. There is a second volume that contains the parables of Enoch, so we'll probably get to that later as well.

Another reason I'm choosing this version to read is because it is also the version that has recently been published by Blurry Creatures. Timothy Alberino uses the same version that Dr. Heiser uses, probably again because it's in public domain, which means that you can use it in your publication without having any problems with the copyright. Just a brief rundown on [00:08:00] my opinion of Alberino's version of the Book of Enoch and his commentary in it, is that, well, if you want a book that has bad AI art, talks about the Watchers probably coming down to Mount Hermon in a UFO, and flying machines, and coincidentally they had modern looking technology back in the past that just looks like our technology, and, you know, things like that, if that's kind of your jam, well, there's your option to go with right there.

I personally didn't enjoy his commentary because although he's pulling from scholarly resources and talking about the history of transmission of the text and all of this, he really puts a lot of emphasis on this idea of mysterious lost books and things like that. And, I mean, to the Western world, the Book of Enoch was kind of lost. [00:09:00] That doesn't mean it was really lost, though, like, lost, lost. And so it's kind of a, one of those fun narratives that people like to go down and talk about because of the mystery of it.

And I actually was asked quite a long time ago to have some comments on Alberino and his information that he puts out. Quite honestly, there's really not that much for me to say, because what he does is pure speculation, really. He takes the scholarly material, and then he looks at it from a very modern lens, very modern, where we're talking about, like I said, UFOs, and hybrids, and DNA, and all of these other things, and I just don't think there's really that much there for me to even speak about, because it's just speculation, and to me, that's not interesting.

To me, if you're gonna go and speculate about [00:10:00] things from a modern perspective, well, you're not really doing biblical studies. Probably nothing that you're saying is really the reality behind any of it, because you're just steeped in your own mindset and your own kind of thinking. Which, we all are, and that's just kind of the name of the game to some degree, but in that kind of light, you're just going full tilt into modern thought and thinking, aha, we can figure this out ourselves, and obviously it's all aliens and demons and hybrids and they're all one in the same. I just don't understand that because it doesn't leave any nuance for thought of the ancient world and putting our minds into the ancient mind.

I mean, I think there's something to be said that we tend to kind of see the past as being super primitive and all of this stuff. Like, I don't want to go that direction either. [00:11:00] But, coincidentally, they have machines that look just like ours, and the UFOs of the day look just like ours, and I just don't buy that kind of stuff.

And I'm not a fan of bad AI art, so that's just where my opinion lands on that. I didn't really find it very valuable for information's sake. And I would highly recommend Dr. Heiser's Reader's Commentary because he goes into enough information that the Book of Enoch becomes really readable, but he doesn't overwhelm you with too much information. And he certainly doesn't go down speculative paths.

So even though there are more modern translations of the Book of Enoch, I am going to go ahead and read this version from R. H. Charles. This was published in 1917.

I want to say a few more things about the different books within the Book of First Enoch, just so that you can have a good [00:12:00] overview of what it's like.

As I said, chapters 1 through 36 is the Book of the Watchers, and this is the story about the fallen angels, and there's a whole lot of eschatological imagery, things like that. And since I'm going to be reading about that, I'll kind of skip that here in the overview.

Chapters 37 to 71 is the parables of Enoch, and the reason it's placed here is because it kind of overlaps with the Book of the Watchers. It talks a great bit about the Son of Man in conjunction with the Final Judgment. So, because Son of Man is such a messianic title, or we see that as a messianic title as Christ followers, then there's going to be a lot of content in this book that has to do with the Christian tradition.

Again, the third book is chapter 72 to 82, and this is Astronomical Enoch, [00:13:00] otherwise known as the Book of the Luminaries or the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries. But that shouldn't be confused with the Words of the Luminaries that comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls. And I actually did an episode about that before. The Astronomical Enoch is not that book. Okay, it's a different book, but it talks about the sun and the moon and the stars and the solar calendar. And it talks about how the cosmos is going to get all discombobulated. And here we have Enoch warning Methuselah about the existence of sinners who are going to miscalculate days and intervals of time. So this book is very important to the community who preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were very, very interested in calendars and aligning the earthly calendar with the heavenly calendar.

So chapters 83 through 90 is called the Dream Visions [00:14:00] or the Book of Dreams or the Animal Apocalypse. This is where we have Enoch who is talking about dreams he's had before he got married. In a vision, he sees the flood that destroyed the world, and he also tells about the history of the world from Adam to the final judgment, and he does this by way of allegory, where animal imagery represents humans. It's a really kind of interesting. Here we have sheep who are representing Israelites, we have beasts and birds of prey who represent Israel's oppressors. We have a horned sheep that represents the Jewish leader and a horned bull represents the Messiah. We have a lot of parallel here to the Book of Revelation.

And then chapters 92 through 1 0 5 is the Epistle of Enoch or Enoch's Testament, and it describes the blessings of the righteous and the [00:15:00] terrible things that sinners are gonna have to go through. There's a section called the Apocalypse of Weeks, which describes the events of ten weeks where wickedness will prevail on the earth. And then after these ten weeks, then righteousness will prevail forever. So again, a lot of themes that are going to be concurrent with the Book of Revelation.

Chapters 106 to 108 is an epilogue, sometimes known as the Book of Noah. Since the flood was a form of judgment, then Noah's birth is going to be viewed here as a promise of salvation for the righteous who will make it through the final judgment. So lots of promises and blessings for the righteous and punishment for the sinners here in this part.

Okay, so as far as manuscripts that we have, we have the Book of the Watchers and the Astronomical part of First Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls. We don't [00:16:00] have all of the other parts, though with the imagery of the different books and things, it still seems like the book of First Enoch, all of the pieces that we have of it, was still written by the first century or by the middle of the first century.

I guess we need to address the question of whether it's canonical or not. It is only canonical within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. And even there, it seems to have a bit of a fuzzy kind of placement in their canon. They might not be viewing canonicity in the same way that, like, a Protestant would be viewing canonicity. So there's a little bit of fuzziness there.

It's not a canonical book, but because it is written so early, it is really important for understanding the thinking of the time. It's got a lot of messianic themes. A lot of eschatological themes. And so those [00:17:00] being very important to the church and Christians in general, and us wanting to know how the first century Jew would be thinking, this book is very crucial to all of that.

Okay, so the Book of the Watchers, which is the first 36 chapters of First Enoch, we're gonna break it up into different sections. The first five chapters form a single unit. Then we have chapters six through eleven, and this is the narrative of the fallen angels. After that, we have chapters 12 through 16. And this basically is a commentary on chapters 6 through 11. And then we have chapters 17 through ,36 and these are the chapters about Enoch's heavenly journeys.

I want you to note the apocalyptic language. We're being given visions that are being interpreted by angels. There is a lot about the destiny of the righteous and the [00:18:00] wicked. The importance here is on judgment. So this isn't really trying to give us a historical past per se, but it's trying to give us a reason and an explanation for judgment. We're going to see a lot about tribulation. We're going to have the elect and the righteous who will be living in the day of tribulation, and the wicked and the godless will be removed. We're going to see language like holy ones and watchers, and a lot of star language, okay?

Okay, so again, this is 1 Enoch, the book of the watchers, translated by R. H. Charles. Chapter 1, quote. The words of the blessing of Enoch, wherewith he blessed the elect and righteous, who will be living in the day of tribulation, when all the wicked and godless are to be removed.

And he took up his parable, and said, Enoch, a righteous man, whose [00:19:00] eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One of the heavens, which the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation. But for a remote one, which is for to come, concerning the elect, I said, and took up my parable concerning them.

The Holy Great One will come forth from his dwelling, And the Eternal God will tread upon the earth, even on Mount Sinai, And appear from his camp, And appear in the strength of his might from the heaven of heavens, And all shall be smitten with fear, and the watchers shall quake.

And great fear and trembling shall seize them until the ends of the earth. And the high mountains shall be shaken, and the high hills shall be made low, and shall melt like wax before the flame, and the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder, and all that is upon the earth shall perish, and there shall be a judgment [00:20:00] upon all men.

But with the righteous he will make peace, and will protect the elect, and mercy shall be upon them, and they shall all belong to God. And they shall be prospered, and they shall all be blessed, and he will help them all, and light shall appear unto them, and he will make peace with them. And behold, he cometh with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly, and to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed. And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. End quote.

Okay, that was chapter one. In chapter two, we're going to be getting into the luminaries in the heavens. We're going to talk about orbits and seasons and things like that.

Chapter two, quote, Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they [00:21:00] do not change their orbits, and the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and transgress not against their appointed order. Behold ye earth, and give heed to the things which take place upon it from first to last, how steadfast they are, how none of these things upon earth change, but all the works of God appear to you.

Behold the summer and the winter, how the whole earth is filled with water, and clouds and dew and rain lie upon it. End quote.

Now we might ask if he's talking about heavenly beings or the actual things that you see, like the stars and the lights. And it's probably honestly a both and.

All right, I'm going to read chapter three and then chapter four, because both of these chapters are about seasons and the cycles of nature. And there's going to be a few interesting details which are going to maybe make you scratch your head and [00:22:00] sometimes we don't know what they are. But I will say also that at Qumran, when we're talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls and all of that, they were really focused on calendar differences.

They knew about a 364 day solar year, but they thought that the calendar at creation was a perfect 360 days. They also thought that there was problems with calendars not being in sync. They didn't approve of the worship at the temple in Jerusalem because they thought they had the wrong calendar.

All right, chapter three, quote, observe and see how in the winter all the trees seem as though they have withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage, but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes. End quote.

Chapter Four. Quote. And again, [00:23:00] Observe ye the days of summer, how the sun is above the earth over against it, as you seek shade and shelter by the reason of the heat of the sun, and the earth also burns with glowing heat, and so you cannot tread on the earth, or on any rock by reason of its heat you cannot tread on the earth. End quote.

So chapter five is a little bit longer. We're going to hear about order and how the heavens are in order. But hey, you guys down here, you're out of order. And there's a lot of talk about sinners and righteous people and judgment and all of that kind of thing.

Chapter five, quote, observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit. Wherefore give ye heed, and know with regard to all his works, and recognize how he that liveth for ever hath made them so. And all his works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for him, and their [00:24:00] tasks change not. But according as God had ordained it, so it is done.

And behold how the sea and the rivers, in like manner, accomplish and change not their tasks from his commandments. But ye, ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord. But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words with your impure mouths against his greatness. Oh ye hardhearted, ye shall find no peace. Therefore, shall ye extricate your days and the years of your life shall perish, and the years of your destruction shall be multiplied in eternal execration. And ye shall find no mercy. In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous. And by you shall all who curse, curse. And all the sinners and godless shall imprecate by you. And for you, the godless, there shall be a curse.

And all shall rejoice. And there shall [00:25:00] be forgiveness of sins, and every mercy and peace and forbearance. There shall be salvation unto them, a goodly light. And for all of you sinners there shall be no salvation, but on you all shall abide a curse. But for the elect, there shall be light, and joy, and peace, and they shall inherit the earth. And then there shall be bestowed upon the elect wisdom, and they shall all live and never again sin, either through ungodliness or through pride, but they who are wise shall be humble, and they shall not again transgress, nor shall they sin all the days of their life. Nor shall they die of the divine anger or wrath, but they shall complete the number of the days of their life, and their lives shall be increased in peace, and the years of their joy shall be multiplied, in eternal gladness and peace, all the days of their life. End quote.

Okay, so that is the end of the first five chapters of the Book of [00:26:00] Enoch. Now we're going to get into chapters six through eleven. This is where we have the rebellion of the Watchers. We have the explanation for human depravity, and we might ask, like we did in last week's episode, if the original Genesis 6 account actually had these ideas embedded within it, or did the idea of what we have in First Enoch kind of philosophically originate later?

And this is why I think the Mesopotamian Apkallu stories are going to be very instrumental, because they're very similar to what we have in First Enoch. And we might ask why the author of Genesis 6 didn't put all of this in, and maybe it's because he didn't want to focus on that. I don't know.

Some people wonder if there's actually two traditions or texts put here, because there's two leaders. We have Shemizaz, who is the leader of the 200 Watchers who [00:27:00] take women to sire giants. And there we have the story of the Flood. But we also have Azazel. And this storyline begins in Chapter 8, with the instruction motif, where they're teaching tools of war, and metalworking, and jewelry, and cosmetics, and astrology. But I think the idea that it's two traditions really doesn't hold a whole lot of water, just because there's two things going on here.

Now, we're going to note the chronology of the actual narrative here. It just jumps into the story of the Watchers without first talking about Enoch being taken up into heaven. We'll get that later.

Chapter 6 is going to be very much like Genesis 6 and we're going to have the pact because the leaders worry that the other ones aren't going to go along with him and actually do it. It mentions the days of Jared. It mentions Mount Hermon, and It gives the names of the leaders, [00:28:00] and I probably will skip all of that because I'm just going to butcher them anyway. But note that angels are called children of the heaven. There is the motif of lust. And we have to wonder if it's a coincidence or not that the name Jared has the same consonants as the verb to descend in Hebrew. And so some people will actually say, Hey, it must be written in Hebrew because of this connection, because the Aramaic term for descend is different, but just like Hebrew borrowed Aramaic words, there's nothing to say that people who were speaking Aramaic couldn't borrow Hebrew words for wordplay. Also a note that Jubilees has the same chronology.

All right, so let's read the Book of the Watchers, Chapter 6. Quote, And it came to pass, when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born unto them [00:29:00] beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another, Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men, and beget us children.

And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them, I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin. And they all answered him, and said, Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan, but to do this thing.

Then swear they all together, and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred, who descended in the days of Jared, on the summit of Mount Hermon. And they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. End quote.

All right, then it does read the names of the leaders, but like I said, I'm just going to butcher [00:30:00] their names anyway, so I'm just going to skip that.

And chapter seven is where we get the wives. We get the idea of them defiling themselves, which they're defiled for a couple of reasons. They're defiled just in relation to the fact that they were spiritual and their actions are going to make them impure. But also there's the idea of unnatural mixture, right? Spirit creatures and human creatures being mixed together who are going to form unclean spirits otherwise known as demons. Now, there's mention of teaching, we have the idea of charms, enchantments, cutting of roots, plants. So the ideas are still here.

It's going to talk about the height of the Giants, which is 300 els tall, or 3, 000 cubits, or 300 cubits. It all depends on the version we're reading. They're really tall, [00:31:00] okay? They consumed all of the acquisitions of men, and then they began eating men. They sin against birds and beasts and reptiles and fish. There's different ways that that's been seen. There's cannibalism, there's blood drinking, it's all just wild and crazy, but note that the giants are described as wild beasts and not demi gods.

All right, chapter seven, quote, And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them, and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms, and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.

And they became pregnant, and they great giants, whose height was three thousand ells, who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them, and devoured mankind. [00:32:00] And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh. And drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. End quote.

Okay, so, like I said, people do suggest that these are two different stories that are smashed together, but there is the idea of teaching in there, although it's not as specific as what we'll see in Chapter 8, where we have Azazel, who teaches swords and knives and shields and breastplates and medals and bracelets and ornaments and cosmetics and all of that. But it's connected to fornication and we can't quite tell if it's the fault of the women or the fault of the angels. Kind of depends on the variant, but both of those stories seem to be at play at different times, and we can't really tell if the earliest version was [00:33:00] blaming the angels entirely, or blaming the women.

Alright, let's read chapter 8. It says, quote, And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth, and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, And the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all coloring tinctures.

And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Shemjezah taught enchantments and root cuttings, Amorath, the resolving of enchantments, Barakiel taught astrology. Kokabel, the constellations, Ezequiel, the knowledge of the clouds, Araquiel, the signs of the earth, Shamsiel, the signs of the sun, and Sariel, the course of the [00:34:00] moon.

And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven. End quote.

Alright, in chapter 9, we're gonna get names of some good guys. And there's a little bit of difference and change up here. At first there seemed to be only four archangels, and later there's seven archangels. And so it kind of goes back and forth depending on what section you're reading here.

Now, men are crying here, and they're asking angels to bring their case before the Most High. But it's the people who have died who are crying. So they're crying from the grave, from Sheol.

Chapter 9, quote, And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. And they said to one another, The earth made without inhabitants cries [00:35:00] the voice of their cryings up to the gates of heaven.

And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men, make their suit, saying, Bring our cause before the Most High. And they said to the Lord of the Ages, Lord of Lords, God of Gods, King of Kings, and God of the Ages, The throne of thy glory standeth unto all the generations of the ages, and thy name holy and righteous and blessed unto all the ages.

Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast thou. And all things are naked and open in thy sight, and thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from thee. Thou seest what Azazel hath done, and who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth, and revealed the eternal secrets which were preserved in heaven, which men were striving to learn, and Shemjazah, to whom thou hast given authority to bear rule over his associates, and they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and they have slept with the women, and have defiled [00:36:00] themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. And the women have borne giants, and the whole earth has thereby been filled with blood and unrighteousness.

And now, behold, the souls of those who have died are crying and making their suit to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have ascended, and cannot cease because of the lawless deeds which are wrought upon the earth. And thou knowest all things before they come to pass, and thou seest these things, and thou dost suffer them, and thou dost not say to us what we are to do to them in regard to these. End quote.

Okay, so we have the angels who see what's going on. They hear the cries of the humans, and they're like, well, God, you know all of this. You see it. What are we supposed to do here? So in chapter 10, we're going to see God, who is going to send Uriel to the son of Lamech to tell him all of this stuff.

We're also going to see Raphael, [00:37:00] who binds Azazel and casts him into the darkness, into an opening in the desert, and he places rocks and stones on him. We're going to see talk about the healing of the earth, that all children of men may not perish because of the teachings. But, that the whole earth has been corrupted.

We see Gabriel, who is going to destroy the children of fornication, the children of the watchers. He's going to send them against one another to destroy themselves in battle.

We have Michael, who is going to bind Shemjazah and his associates, and we have the cleansing of the earth and all of this. So this is kind of the flood narrative, basically. Chapter 10 is quite long.

Chapter 10 says, Quote, Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him, Go to Noah, and tell him in my name, Hide thyself, and [00:38:00] reveal to him the end that is approaching, that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it. And now instruct him that he may escape, and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.

And again, the Lord said to Raphael, Bind Azazel, hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness. And make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudayel, and cast him therein, and place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there forever, and cover his face that he may not see light. And on the day of the great judgment he shall be cast into the fire.

And heal the earth which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague. And that all the children of men may not perish through all the secret things that the Watchers have disclosed and have taught their sons.

And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by [00:39:00] Azazel. To him ascribe all sin.

And to Gabriel said the Lord, proceed against the bastards and the reprobates and against the children of fornication. And destroy the children of fornication and the children of the Watchers from amongst men. And cause them to go forth. Send them one against the other, that they may destroy each other in battle, for length of days shall they not have. And no request that they, their fathers, make of thee, shall be granted unto their fathers on their behalf. For they hope to live an eternal life, and that each one of them will live five hundred years.

And the Lord said unto Michael, Go bind Shemjazah and his associates who have united themselves with women, so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgment, and of all their consummation, till the [00:40:00] judgment that is forever and ever is consummated.

In those days, they shall be led off to the abyss of fire, and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined forever, and whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed, will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all generations, and destroy all the spirits of the reprobate and the children of the watchers, because they have wronged mankind.

Destroy all wrong from the face of the earth, and let every evil work come to an end, and let the plant of righteousness and truth appear, and it shall prove a blessing. The works of righteousness and truth shall be planted in truth and joy for evermore. And then shall all the righteous escape.

They shall live till they beget thousands of children, and all the days of their youth and their old age shall they complete in peace. And then shall the whole earth be tilled in righteousness, and shall all be planted with trees and be full of blessing. And all desirable trees shall be planted on [00:41:00] it.

And they shall plant vines on it and the vine which they plant there on, shall yield wine in abundance. And as for all the seed which is sewn there on each measure of it shall bear a thousand. And each measure of olives shall yield ten presses of oil, and cleanse thou the earth from all oppression, and from all unrighteousness, and from all sin, and from all ungodlessness.

And all the uncleanness that is wrought upon the earth, destroy from off the earth, and the children of men shall become righteous. And all nations shall offer adoration, and shall praise me. And all shall worship me, and the earth shall be cleansed from all defilement, and from all sin, and from all punishment, and from all torment, and I will never again send them upon it from generation to generation and forever. End quote.

All right, so chapter 11 is very short. It says, quote, And in those days, I will open the [00:42:00] store chambers of blessing, which are in the heaven, so as to send them down upon the earth over the work and labor of the children of men. And truth and peace shall be associated together throughout all the days of the world and throughout all the generations of men. End quote.

So that is the end of that section of Enoch, chapters 6 through 11. Now chapters 12 through 16 are going to serve as a commentary on what we just read. Chapter 12, he's going to go warn the watchers of their destruction. Chapter 13, the watchers are going to plead for his intercession with God. Chapter 14, we're going to have the vision and God's response and how they're going to be judged. And then chapters 15 and 16 is going to kind of wrap up this section.

So here's an interesting thing. We kind of assume that Enoch was taken up into heaven, and he didn't die, right? Well, [00:43:00] according to Jubilees 4, verses 21 through 23, after he was 65, Enoch spent six Jubilees, which is a total of 294 years, with the angels. And then he was going to return to earth before being taken to paradise. We see that in Jubilees 5. 23. But in 2 Enoch 1. 1, it says that it was actually in his last year of life that he did this. But when we see that idea of Enoch walking with God in Genesis 5. 24, well the translation could be that Enoch walked with the gods. So he was walking with the watchers.

Enoch is described as a scribe, like a kind of like a celestial scribe with the Heavenly Books kind of idea is what we should have in our heads here, and that's kind of important to what we're thinking about as well in a lot of this stuff.

[00:44:00] But let's go ahead and read chapter 12. says, before these things, Enoch was hidden. And no one of the children of men knew where he was hidden, and where he abode, and what had become of him, and his activities had to do with the Watchers, and his days were with the Holy Ones.

And I, Enoch, was blessing the Lord of Majesty, and the King of Ages. And, lo, the Watchers called me Enoch the scribe, and said to me, Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go declare to the Watchers of the heaven, who have left the high heaven. The Holy Eternal Place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of earth do, and have taken unto themselves wives.

Ye have wrought great destruction on the earth, and ye shall have no peace, nor forgiveness of sin. And inasmuch as they delight themselves in their children, the murder of their beloved ones shall they see. And [00:45:00] over the destruction of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication into eternity. But mercy and peace shall ye not attain. End quote.

Okay, so Enoch's up there in heaven hanging out with the good angels and he's told as the scribe to go declare to the watchers what their fate is. So in chapter 13, he's gonna go do that and they're gonna be like, what the heck? Can you go ask God if he can forgive us, please?

Chapter 13 says, quote, And Enoch went and said, Azazel, thou shalt have no peace. A severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds. And thou shalt not have toleration nor request granted to thee because of the unrighteousness which thou hast taught and because of all the works of godlessness and unrighteousness and sin which thou hast shown to men.

Then I went and spoke to them all together. And they were all [00:46:00] afraid, and fear and trembling seized them. And they besought me to draw up a petition for them, that they might find forgiveness, and to read their petition in the presence of the Lord of heaven. For from thenceforward they could not speak with him, nor lift up their eyes to heaven, for shame of their sins, for which they had been condemned.

Then I wrote out their petition, and the prayer, in regard to their spirits and their deeds individually, and in regard to their requests, that they should have forgiveness and length. And I went off and sat down at the waters of Dan, in the land of Dan, to the south of the west of Hermon.

I read their petition till I fell asleep. And behold, a dream came to me, and visions fell down upon me, and I saw visions of chastisement, and a voice came bidding me to tell it to the sons of heaven and reprimand them. And when I awaked, I came unto them, and they were still gathered together, weeping in Adbel Jezel, which is between Lebanon and Sennazir, with their faces covered. And I [00:47:00] recounted before them all the visions which I had seen in sleep, and I began to speak the words of righteousness, and to reprimand the heavenly watchers. End quote.

Okay, so chapter 14 is going to be a bit long as well. This is the Book of the Words of Righteousness. We're going to have some weird vision imagery, God on a throne and clouds and mist, and it's going to seem a lot like Ezekiel 1, I think. There's probably a lot of imagery we could be talking about here, but I'm just going to read it and let you think about it for a bit.

Chapter 14 says, quote, The Book of the Words of Righteousness, and of the reprimand of the Eternal Watchers, in accordance with the command of the Holy Great One in that vision.

I saw in my sleep what I will now say with the tongue of flesh, and with the breath of my mouth, which the Great One has given to men to converse therewith and understand with the heart. As He hath created and given to man the power of [00:48:00] understanding the Word of Wisdom, so hath he created me also, and given me the power of reprimanding the watchers, the children of heaven.

I wrote out your petition, and in my vision it appeared thus, that your petition will not be granted unto you throughout all the days of eternity, and that judgment has been finally passed upon you. Yea, your petition will not be granted unto you, and from henceforth you shall not ascend into heaven into all eternity.

And in bonds of the earth, the decree has gone forth to bind you for all the days of the world. And that previously, you shall have seen the destruction of your beloved sons, and you shall have no pleasure in them, but they shall fall before you by the sword. And your petition on their behalf shall not be granted, nor yet on your own, even though you weep and pray and speak all the words contained in the writing which I have written.

And the vision was shown to me thus, Behold, in the vision, clouds invited me, and a mist summoned me, and in the course of stars and the lightnings sped and [00:49:00] hastened me, and the winds in the vision caused me to fly and lifted me upward, and bore me into heaven, and I went in till I drew nigh to a wall which is built of crystals, and surrounded by tongues of fire.

And it began to affright me, and I went into the tongues of fire, and drew nigh to a large house which was built of crystals. And the walls of the house were like a tessellated floor made of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal. Its ceiling was like the path of the stars and the lightnings, and between them were fiery cherubim, and their heaven was clear as water.

A flaming fire surrounded the walls, and its portals blazed with fire, and I entered into that house, and it was hot as fire and cold as ice. There were no delights of life therein. Fear covered me, and trembling get hold upon me. And as I quaked and trembled, I fell upon my face, and I beheld a vision, and lo, there was a second house, greater than the former, and the entire portal stood open before me, and [00:50:00] it was built of flames of fire, and in every respect, it so excelled in splendor and magnificent in extent, that I cannot describe to you its splendor and its extent, and its floor was of fire, and above it were lightnings in the path of the stars, and its ceiling also was flaming fire.

And I looked and saw therein a lofty throne. Its appearance was as crystal and the wheels thereof as the shining sun. And there was the vision of cherubim. And from underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon. And the great glory sat thereon and his raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow.

None of the angels could enter and could behold his face by reason of the magnificent and glory, and no flesh could behold him. The flaming fire was round about him, and a great fire stood before him, and none around could draw nigh him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, yet he [00:51:00] needed no counsellor, and the most holy ones who were nigh to him did not leave by night nor depart from him.

And until then, I had been prostrate on my face trembling, and the Lord called me with his own mouth, and said to me, Come hither, Enoch, and hear my word. And one of the holy ones came to me, and waked me, and he made me rise up, and approach the door, and I bowed my face downwards. End quote.

All right, lots of interesting vision stuff there, right? In chapter 15, we're going to have God speaking. He's going to tell Enoch to go to the watchers of heaven and say that you should intercede for men, not men for you. So this is an interesting idea of the intercession by heavenly advocates. We see it in ancient Near Eastern literature. We see it in Second Temple Judaism.

We're going to have the talk of defilement again, and the idea outright that the reason men have [00:52:00] wives is so they can have kids. But Watchers don't need kids because they're eternal. But I guess not anymore, right? Actually having kids made them have judgment against them so they were no longer going to be eternal.

Now the Giants are going to be called Evil Spirits, and on the Earth will be their dwelling. So, it's kind of a punishment that they're going to end up on the earth all the time. The term evil spirits is really powerful spirits here, but of course, they're going to be evil. They're going to be doing evil amongst men.

The idea here is that the spirits in heaven are going to dwell in heaven. The spirits who are born on earth are going to dwell on earth. And the giants are super wicked.

Okay, so, chapter 15 says, quote, And he answered and said to me, and I heard his voice, Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness. Approach hither and hear my voice. And [00:53:00] go, say to the watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them, You should intercede for men, and not men for you. Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women? And defiled yourselves with the daughters of men, and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of the earth, and begotten giants as your sons.

And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten children with the blood of flesh. And, as the children of men have lusted after flesh and blood, as those also do who die and perish. Therefore have I given them wives, so that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, and thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you, but as for the [00:54:00] spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.

And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies, because they are born from men, and from the holy watchers is their beginning and primal origin. They shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.

As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling. But as for the spirits of the earth, which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling. And the spirits of giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble. They take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offenses. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men, and against the women, because they have proceeded from them. End quote.

Okay, so the last [00:55:00] chapter of this section is chapter 16. The spirits are going to destroy until the day of judgment with the consummation of the age. We're going to see the terms demons, unclean spirits, bastard spirits. They were judged and they were killed, but they're going to keep on destroying even after that.

Now, we need to note a distinction between how the Watchers were previously judged and these aren't going to be judged until the end.

All right, chapter 16 says, quote, From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants, from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgment. Thus shall they destroy until the day of their consummation. The great judgment in which the age shall be consummated over the watchers and the godless, yea, shall be wholly consummated.

And now, as to the watchers who have sent thee to intercede for [00:56:00] them, who have been aforetime in heaven, say to them, You have been in heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones, and these in the hardness of your hearts you have made known to the women, and through these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth. Say to them, therefore, you shall have no peace. End quote.

So that is the end of that section. Then coming up, we have chapters 17 through 36, and these chapters focus on the heavenly journeys of Enoch. He's going to go to Sheol, to the ends of the earth, to places of judgment, to paradise, to God's throne, to the tree of life, to Jerusalem.

He really gets a view of basically everything here, and I would love to kind of break this down and talk really in depth here, but I think that I'm really just going to read through this whole section, because we're not going [00:57:00] to be able to really give it much detail anyway. But I will make sure to note when I start and end a chapter.

Alright. Chapter 17. Quote. And they took and brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire, and when they wished, they appeared as men.

And they brought me to the place of darkness. And to a mountain, the point of whose summit reached to heaven, and I saw the places of the luminaries, and the treasuries of the stars, and of the thunder, and in the uttermost depths, where were a fiery bow and arrows, and their quiver, and a fiery sword, and all the lightnings.

And they took me to the living waters, and to the fire of the west, which receives every setting of the sun. And I came to a river of fire, in which the fire flows like water, and discharges itself into the great sea towards the west. I saw the great rivers, and came to the great river, and to the great darkness, and went to the place where no flesh [00:58:00] walks.

I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter, and the place whence all the waters of the deep flow. I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth, and the mouth of the deep.

Chapter 18 I saw the treasuries of all the winds. I saw how he had furnished with them the whole creation, and the firm foundations of the earth. And I saw the cornerstone of the earth. I saw the four winds which I bear, the earth and the firmament of the heaven.

And I saw how the winds stretch out the vaults of heaven, and have their station between heaven and earth. These are the pillars of the heaven. I saw the winds of heaven which turn and bring the circumference of the sun and all the stars to their setting. I saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds. I saw the paths of the angels. I saw at the end of the earth the firmament of the heaven above, and I proceeded and saw a place which burns day and night, where there are seven mountains of magnificent [00:59:00] stones, three towards the east and three towards the south, And as for those towards the east, one was of colored stone, and one of pearl, and one of jacinth, and those towards the south, of redstone. But the middle one reached to heaven like the throne of God, of alabaster, and the summit of the throne was of sapphire.

And I saw a flaming fire, and beyond these mountains, is a region the end of the great earth. There, the heavens were completed, and I saw a deep abyss, with columns of heavenly fire, and among them, I saw columns of fire fall, which were beyond measure alike toward the height and towards the depth, and beyond that abyss, I saw a place which had no firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it. There was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste, and horrible place. I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired regarding [01:00:00] them, the angel said, This place is the end of heaven and earth. This has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven.

And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. And he was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated, even for ten thousand years.

Chapter 19 And Uriel said to me, Here shall stand the angels, who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits, assuming many different forms, are defiling mankind, and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods. Here they stand, till the day of the great judgment, in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of.

And the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens. And I, Enoch, alone saw the vision. The ends of all things, and [01:01:00] no man shall see as I have seen.

Chapter 20 And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. Raguel, one of the holy angels, who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries. Michael, one of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind, and over chaos.

Saracael, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits who sin in the spirit.

Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over paradise, and the serpents, and the cherubim.

Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise.

Chapter 21. And I proceeded to where things were chaotic, and I saw there something [01:02:00] horrible. I saw neither a heaven above, nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. Then I said, For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?

Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me and was chief over them, and said, Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins are consummated.

And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former. And I saw a horrible thing, a great fire there, which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss. Being full of great descending columns of fire, neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture.

Then [01:03:00] I said, How fearful is the place, and how terrible to look upon. Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who is with me, and said unto me, Enoch, why hast thou such fear and a fright? And I answered, Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain. And he said unto me, This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned forever.

Chapter 22. Okay, so here I have to say for a moment that in a couple of these chapters, and for some of the verses, he will provide the Greek and the Ethiopic text. And I'm just going to choose one. I'll probably just choose the Greek text. Otherwise, it's going to be too confusing.

So chapter 22, quote, And thence I went to another place, and he showed me in the west another great and high mountain and of hard rock. And there were four hollow places in it, deep and very smooth, three of them were dark and one bright. And there was a [01:04:00] fountain of water in its midst. And I said, How smooth are these hollow places and deep and dark to view.

Then Raphael answered, one of the holy angels who is with me, and said unto me, Those hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein. Yea, that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here. And these places have been made to receive them till the day of their judgment, until their appointed period. Till the great judgment comes upon them.

I saw the spirit of a dead man making suit and his voice went forth to heaven and made suit.

And I asked Raphael, the angel who was with me, and said unto him, this spirit which make a suit, whose is it, whose voice goes forth and make a suit to heaven? And he answered me saying, this is the spirit which went forth from Abel whom his brother Cain slew. And he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth. And his seed is annihilated from amongst the seed of [01:05:00] men.

Then I asked regarding all the hollow places, Why is one separated from the other? And he answered me, saying, These three have been made, that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And this division has been made for the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water. And this has been made for sinners when they die, and are buried in the earth, and judgment has not been executed upon them in their lifetime. Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain, till the great day of judgment, scourgings and torments of the accursed forever, so that there may be retribution for their spirits. There he shall bind them forever.

And this division has been made for the spirits of those who make their suit. Who make disclosures concerning their destruction, when they were slain in the days of the sinners. And this has been made for the spirits of men, who shall not be righteous, but sinners, who are godless, and of the lawless they shall be companions. But their spirits shall not be punished in the day of judgment, nor shall they be raised from thence. Then I blessed the Lord of [01:06:00] glory, and said, Blessed art thou, Lord of righteousness, who ruleth over the world.

Chapter 23. From thence I went to another place, to the west of the ends of the earth, and I saw a burning fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night, but ran regularly. And I asked, saying, What is this which rests not?

Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who is with me, answered me, and said unto me, This course of fire, which thou hast seen, is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.

Chapter Twenty Four And from thence I went to another place of the earth, and he showed me a mountain range of fire which burnt day and night. And I went beyond it, and saw seven magnificent mountains, all differing each from the other, and the stones thereof were magnificent and beautiful, magnificent as a whole, of glorious appearance and fair exterior, three towards the east, one founded on the other. [01:07:00] and three towards the south, one upon the other, and deep rough ravines, no one of which joined with any other. And the seventh mountain was in the midst of these, and it excelled them in height, resembling the seat of a throne, and fragrant trees encircled the throne.

And amongst them was a tree such as I had never yet smelt, neither was any amongst them, nor were others like it. It had a fragrance beyond all fragrance, And its leaves and blooms and wood wither not forever, and its fruit is beautiful, and its fruit resembles the dates of a palm.

Then I said, How beautiful is this tree, and fragrant, and its leaves are fair, and its blooms very delightful in appearance.

Then answered Michael, one of the holy and honored angels who's with me, and was their leader.

Chapter Twenty Five And he said unto me, Enoch, why dost thou ask me regarding the fragrance of the tree? And why dost thou wish to learn the truth? Then I answered him, saying, I wish to know about [01:08:00] everything, but especially about this tree. And he answered, saying, this high mountain, which thou hast seen, whose summit is like the throne of God, is his throne, where the Holy Great One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit, when he shall come down to visit the earth with goodness.

And as for this fragrant tree, no mortal is permitted to touch it till the Great Judgment, when he shall take vengeance on all, and bring everything to its consummation forever. It will then be given to the righteous and holy. Its fruit shall be for food to the elect. It shall be transplanted to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King. Then shall they rejoice with joy and be glad, and unto the holy place shall they enter. And its fragrance shall be in their bones, and they shall live a long life on earth, such as thy fathers lived. And in their days shall no sorrow, or plague, or torment, or calamity touch them. Then blessed I the Lord of glory, the eternal King, who has prepared such [01:09:00] things for the righteous, and hath created them, and promised to give to them.

Chapter 26 And I went from thence to the middle of the earth. And I saw a blessed place in which there were trees, with the branches abiding and blooming of a dismembered tree. And there I saw a holy mountain, and underneath the mountain to the east there was a stream, and it flowed towards the south.

And I saw towards the east another mountain higher than this, and between them a deep and narrow ravine. In it also ran a stream underneath the mountain. And to the west thereof there was another mountain, lower than the former, and of small elevation, and a ravine, deep and dry, between them. And another deep and dry ravine was at the extremities of the three mountains. And all the ravines were deep and narrow, being formed of hard rock, and trees were not planted upon them. And marveled at the rocks, and I marveled at the ravine, yea, marveled very much.

Then said I, For what [01:10:00] object is this blessed land, which is entirely filled with trees, and this accursed valley between?

Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered and said, This accursed valley is for those who are accursed forever. Here shall all the accursed be gathered together, who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words, and of His glory speak hard things. Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be the place of their habitation.

In the last times, in the days of the true judgment in the presence of the righteous forever, here shall the godly bless the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King. In the days of judgment over the former, they shall bless him for the mercy in accordance with which he has assigned them their lot. Then I blessed the Lord of Glory, and set forth his glory, and lauded him gloriously.

Chapter 28 And thence I went towards the east, into the midst of the mountain range of the desert. And I saw a wilderness, and it was solitary, full of trees and plants, [01:11:00] and water gushed forth from above, rushing like a copious water course, which flowed towards the northwest, it caused clouds and dew to ascend on every side.

Chapter Twenty Nine And thence I went to another place in the desert, and approached to the east of this mountain range. And there I saw aromatic trees, exhaling the fragrance of frankencense and myrrh. And the trees also were similar to the almond tree.

Chapter 30 And beyond these I went afar to the east, and I saw another place, a valley full of water. And therein there was a tree, the color of fragrant trees such as the mastic. And on the sides of the valleys I saw fragrant cinnamon. And beyond these, I proceeded to the East.

Chapter 31 and I saw other mountains and amongst them were groves of trees and there flowed forth from them nectar, which is named serara and galbanum. [01:12:00] And beyond these mountains, I saw another mountain to the east of the ends of the earth where on were aloe trees and all the trees were full of stacte, being like almond trees. And when one burnt it, it smelt sweeter than any fragrant odor.

Chapter 32 To the northeast I beheld seven mountains full of choiced nard, and mastic, and cinnamon, and pepper. And thence I went over the summits of all these mountains, far towards the east of the earth, and passed above the Itherian sea, and went far from it, and passed over the angel Zotiel.

And I came to the Garden of Righteousness. And from afar off, trees more numerous than these trees, and great, two trees there, very great, beautiful and glorious, and magnificent, and the tree of knowledge, whose holy fruit they eat, and know great wisdom. That tree is in height like the fir, and its leaves are like those of the carob tree, and its fruit is like the clusters of the [01:13:00] vine, very beautiful. And the fragrance of the tree permeates afar.

Then I said, How beautiful is the tree, and how attractive is its look. Then Raphael, the holy angel who was with me, answered me and said, This is the tree of wisdom, of which thy father old in years, and thy aged mother, who are before thee, have eaten. And they learnt wisdom, and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they were driven out of the garden.

Chapter 33 And from thence I went to the ends of the earth, and saw there great beasts, and each differed from the other. And I saw birds also differing in appearance and beauty and voice, the one differing from the other. And to the east of those beasts I saw the ends of the earth, whereupon heaven rests, and the portals of the heaven open.

And I saw how the stars of heaven come forth, And I counted the portals out of which they proceed, and wrote down all their outlets, of each individual star by itself, according to their number and their names, their courses [01:14:00] and their positions, and their times and their months, as Uriel the holy angel who is with me showed me. He showed all things to me, and wrote them down for me, also their names he wrote for me, and their laws and their companies.

Chapter 34. And from thence I went towards the north to the ends of the earth. And there I saw a great and glorious device at the ends of the whole earth. And here I saw three portals of heaven open in the heaven. Through each of them proceeded north winds. When they blow there is cold, hail, frost, snow, dew, and rain.

And out of one portal they blow for good. But when they blow through the other two portals, it is with violence and affliction on the earth, and they blow with violence.

Chapter 35. And from thence I went towards the west to the ends of the earth, and saw there three portals of the heaven open such as I had seen in the east, the same number of portals and the same number of [01:15:00] outlets.

Chapter 36. And from thence I went to the south, to the ends of the earth, and saw there three open portals of the heaven, and thence there come dew, rain, and wind. And from thence I went to the east, to the ends of heaven, and saw here three eastern portals of heaven open, and small portals above them.

Through each of these small portals pass the stars of heaven, and run their course to the west, on the path which is shown to them. And as often as I saw, I blessed always the Lord of Glory, and I continued to bless the Lord of Glory, who has wrought great and glorious wonders, to show the greatness of His work to the angels, and to spirits, and to men, that they might praise His work, and all His creation, that they might see the work of His might, And praise the great work of his hands and bless him forever. End quote.

Alright, we got through it. We got through the Book of the Watchers. And again, if you want more [01:16:00] commentary on this, I really do highly suggest Dr. Heiser's reader's commentary. They're not super long, they're not super involved, but it's gonna kind of give you a little bit better of an idea of what's going on.

But of course, there's way more that we can talk about here. And I will be bringing up the Book of Enoch as we talk about the flood narrative and other things through history. I'll probably be talking about it kind of as a historical interpretation type of a thing, because it really does highlight what we've been talking about in Genesis 6, and it's going to help kind of give us a grounding of why people in the past used to think the way they did, and how that has changed through time.

Which, I don't know about you, but I think that's really valuable. But, next week, we're going to kind of do a little bit of a detour into a topic that I am super excited about. It's probably going to be one of my favorite episodes ever. So you [01:17:00] can look forward to that, and currently it is still the Christmas season, and I wish you all a blessed time in all of that, if you're listening to this at that time.

And I realized this week that my podcast is now two years old. So yay! That's amazing that I've been doing it for that long. It doesn't feel like it's been two years. I have enjoyed every minute of it. Really appreciate interacting with all of you. And I really want to thank you guys for listening and for supporting the podcast in the different ways that you do, whether you're sharing the episodes with other people or interacting online, giving me ratings and other kinds of feedback, and questions, and all of that. I really want to say thank you to all of you, and a really big shout out to those of you who help support me financially. You guys rock, and you guys are very, very helpful to me. And just a mention [01:18:00] for my website at GenesisMarksSpot. com, where you can sign up for my newsletter and you can access blog posts, search the transcripts, find guest profiles, and all of that good stuff. And my store! Don't forget to go check out my store, where I do have stickers and mugs and artwork and all kinds of other stuff. But that is it for this week, and I wish you all a blessed week, and we will see you later.