The Book of Enoch 10
Book I The Book of the Watchers Chapters 1–36 · 3rd century BCE
The oldest core of 1 Enoch: the descent of the two hundred Watchers, the birth of the giants, Enoch's intercession, and his guided journeys through the cosmos and the places of judgment.
Dating & manuscripts. Among the oldest apocalyptic writings in existence. Aramaic copies were found at Qumran (4QEnoch a-c), confirming its pre-Maccabean date - older than the Book of Daniel.
Chapters 6-11 preserve an older Semjaza/Shemihazah myth cycle later woven together with the Azazel/Asael tradition; scholars read them as composite, with a Noah fragment embedded. Angel names vary by manuscript (Semjaza/Shemihazah, Azazel/Asael).
In later tradition. This section's imagery echoes through later scripture and tradition: the Epistle of Jude (verses 14-15) quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 by name, and the Watchers legend shaped 2 Peter, the Book of Revelation, and the theology of the Qumran community and early Christianity.
The Book of Giants. A sixth Enochic work that expands the Watchers story from the giants' point of view - their violence, their prophetic dreams, and their doom. Known from Aramaic fragments at Qumran and, centuries later, adopted into Manichaean scripture. It is not part of the Ethiopic 1 Enoch preserved here.
1 Enoch is an anthology of five distinct works, composed over roughly three centuries.
Echoes & Connections 3 connections
Judgment pronouncements in panels: binding of Semjaza, destruction of the giants, purification of the earth, and future hope. Repetitive 'and then' judgment formulas.
The Judgment upon the Watchers
Uriel is sent to Noah the son of Lamech to warn him of the deluge that will destroy the whole earth. Themes: Divine Judgment and the Flood
1hen said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him:
2 'Go to Noah and tell him in my name "Hide thyself!" and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come 3 upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it.
3 And now instruct him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.'
4 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 Dudael, and cast him therein.
5 And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light.
6 And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire.
7 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.
8 And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.'
9 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.
10 And no request that they (i.e. 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.'
11 And the Lord said unto Michael: 'Go, bind Semjaza and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness.
12 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 judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated.
13 In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and 14 to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever.
14 And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all generations.
15 And destroy all the spirits of the reprobate and the children of the Watchers, because they have wronged mankind.
16 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.
17 And then shall all the righteous escape, And shall live till they beget thousands of children, And all the days of their youth and their old age Shall they complete in peace.
18 And then shall the whole earth be tilled in righteousness, and shall all be planted with trees and be full of blessing.
19 And all desirable trees shall be planted on it, and they shall plant vines on it: and the vine which they plant thereon shall yield wine in abundance, and as for all the seed which is sown thereon each measure (of it) shall bear a thousand, and each measure of olives shall yield ten presses of oil.
20 And cleanse thou the earth from all oppression, and from all unrighteousness, and from all sin, and from all godlessness: and all the uncleanness that is wrought upon the earth destroy from off the earth.
21 And all the children of men shall become righteous, and all nations shall offer adoration and shall praise Me, and all shall worship Me.
22 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 for ever.
Did You Know?
Uriel is sent to Noah the son of Lamech to warn him of the deluge that will destroy the whole earth.
Raphael is commanded to bind Azazel hand and foot and cast him into the desert of Dudael under rough and jagged rocks.
Gabriel must send the children of the Watchers against one another in battle so that they destroy each other.
Michael is to bind Semjaza and his associates for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth till judgement.
All sin is ascribed to Azazel because the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that he taught.
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Commentary
In brief
God answers. Noah is warned of the flood, the ringleader Azazel is bound in darkness, Semjaza and his companions are chained beneath the hills until judgement, and the earth is promised cleansing and renewal. It is the first great reckoning, and a preview of the last.
Scholar's note
For Charles this chapter brings the section to its climax as God pronounces the dooms: Noah is preserved, Azazel is bound and cast into the darkness, and the leaders are bound "for seventy generations" beneath the hills until the judgement. He reads the binding of the Watchers and the Deluge together as "the first world judgement," the prelude and pattern of the final one.
R.H. Charles, The Book of Enoch (Oxford, 1912) · public domain