Friday, March 29, 2024

The Book of Enoch: Chapters CIV - CV

Chapter CIV

(twice for some reason)

1. In those days, saith the Lord, they shall call to the children of the earth, and make them listen to their wisdom. Show them that you are their leaders;
2. And that renumeration shall take place over the whole earth ; for I and my Son will for ever hold communion with them in the paths of uprightness, while they are still alive. Peace shall be yours. Rejoice, children of integrity, in the truth.


Chapter CV

1. After a time, my son Mathusala took a wife for his son Lamech.
2. She became pregnant by him, and brought forth a child, the flesh of which was as white as snow, and red as a rose; the hair of whose head was white like wool, and long ; and whose eyes were beautiful. When he opened them, he illuminated all the house, like the sun ; the whole house abounded with light.
3. And when he was taken from the hand of the midwife, opening also his mouth, he spoke to the Lord of righteousness. Then Lamech his father was afraid of him ; and flying away came to his own father Mathusala, and said, I have begotten a son, unlike to other chidren. He is not human; but, resembling the offspring of the angels of heaven, is of a different nature from ours, being altogether unlike to us.
4. His eyes are bright as the rays of the sun ; his countenance glorious, and he looks not as if he belonged to me, but to the angels.
5. I am afraid, lest something miraculous should take place on earth in his days.
6. And now, my father, let me entreat and request you to go to our progenitor Enoch, and to learn from him the truth; for his residence is with the angels.
7. When Mathusala heard the words of his son, he came to me at the extremities of the earth ; for he had been informed that I was there : and he cried out.
8. I heard his voice, and went to him saying. Behold, I am here, my son ; since thou art come to me.
9. He answered and said. On account of a great event have I come to thee ; and on account of a sight difficult to be comprehended have I approached thee.
10. And now, my father, hear me ; for to my son Lamech a child has been born, who resembles not him ; and whose nature is not like the nature of man. His colour is whiter than snow ; he is redder than the rose ; the hair of his head is whiter than white wool ; his eyes are like the rays of the sun; and when he opened them he illuminated the whole house.
11. When also he was taken from the hand of the midwife, he opened his mouth, and blessed the Lord of heaven.
12. His father Lamech feared, and fled to me, believing not that the child belonged to him, but that he resembled the angels of heaven. And behold I am come to thee, that thou mightest point out to me the truth. Then I, Enoch, answered and said. The Lord will effect a new thing upon the earth. This have I explained, and seen in a vision. I have shown thee that in the generations of Jared my father, those who were from heaven disregarded the word of the Lord. Behold they committed crimes ; laid aside their class, and intermingled with women. With them also they transgressed ; married with them, and begot children.
14. A great destruction therefore shall come upon all the earth ; a deluge, a great destruction, shall take place in one year.
15. This child which is born to you shall survive on the earth, and his three sons shall be saved with him. When all mankind who are on earth shall die, he shall be safe.
16. And his posterity shall beget on the earth giants, not spiritual, but carnal. Upon the earth shall a great punishment be inflicted, and it shall be washed from all corruption. Now therefore inform thy son Lamech, that he who is born is his child in truth ; and he shall call his name Noah, for he shall be to you a survivor. He and his children shall be saved from the corruption which shall take place in the world ; from all the sin and from all the iniquity which shall be consummated on earth in his days. Afterwards shall greater impiety take place than that which had been before consummated on the earth ; for. I am acquainted with holy mysteries, which the Lord himself has discovered and explained to me ; and which I have read in the tablets of heaven.
17. In them I saw it written, that generation after generation shall transgress, until a righteous race shall arise ; until transgression and crime perish from off the earth ; until all goodness come upon it.
18. And now, my son, go tell thy son Lamech,
19. That the child which is born is his child in truth ; and that there is no deception.
20. When Mathusala heard the word of his father Enoch, who had shown him every secret thing, he returned with understanding, and called the name of that child Noah ; because he was to console the earth on account of all its destruction.
21. Another book, which Enoch wrote for his son Mathusala, and for those who should come after him, and preserve their purity of conduct in the latter days. You, who have laboured, shall wait in those days, until the evil doers be consumed, and the power of the guilty be annihilated. Wait, until sin pass away ; for their names shall be blotted out of the holy books; their seed shall be destroyed, and their spirits slain. They shall cry out and lament in the invisible waste, and in the bottomless fire shall they burn. There I perceived, as it were, a cloud which could not be seen through ; for from the depth of it I was unable to look upwards. I beheld also a flame of fire blazing brightly, and, as it were, glittering mountains whirled around, and agitated from side to side.
22. Then I inquired of one of the holy angels who was with me, and said. What is this splendid object ? For it is not heaven, but a flame of fire alone which blazes ; and in it there is the clamour of exclamation, of woe, and of great suffering.
23. He said. There, into that place which thou beholdest, shall be thrust the spirits of sinners and blasphemers ; of those who shall do evil, and who shall pervert all which God has spoken by the mouth of the prophets ; all which they ought to do. For respecting these things there shall be writings and impressions above in heaven, that the angels may read them and know what shall happen both to sinners and to the spirits of the humble ; to those who have suffered in their bodies, but have been rewarded by God ; who have been injuriously treated by wicked men ; who have loved God ; who have been attached neither to gold nor silver, nor to any good thing in the world, but have given their bodies to torment;
24. To those who from the period of their birth have not been covetous of earthly riches ; but have regarded themselves as a breath passing away.
25. Such has been their conduct ; and much has the Lord tried them ; and their spirits have been found pure, that they might bless his name. All their blessings have I related in a book ; and He has rewarded them ; for they have been found to love heaven with an everlasting aspiration. God has said, While they have been trodden down by wicked men, they have heard from them revilings and blasphemies ; and have been ignominiously treated, while they were blessing me. And now will I call the spirits of the good from the generation of light, and will change those who have been born in darkness ; who have not in their bodies been recompensed with glory, as their faith may have merited.
26. I will bring them into the splendid light of those who love my holy name : and I will place each of them on a throne of glory, of glory peculiarly his own, and they shall be at rest during unnumbered periods. Righteous is the judgment of God;
27. For to the faithful shall he give faith in the habitations of uprightness. They shall see those, who having been born in darkness unto darkness shall be cast ; while the righteous shall be at rest. Sinners shall cry out, beholding them, while they exist in splendour and proceed forwards to the days and periods prescribed to them.

Here ends the vision of Enoch the prophet.
May the benediction of his prayer, and the gift of his appointed period, be with his beloved!
Amen.


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