The Book of Enoch 77
Book III The Astronomical Book (Book of the Luminaries) Chapters 72–82 · 3rd century BCE
Uriel shows Enoch the laws of the sun, moon, and stars, and the gates through which they move - the basis for a 364-day solar calendar.
Dating & manuscripts. As old as the Book of the Watchers. The Aramaic copies from Qumran (4QEnastr) are far longer and more technical than the abridged Ethiopic text preserved here.
Its 364-day calendar is the same one defended by the Book of Jubilees and used by the Qumran community, setting it against the lunar calendar of the Jerusalem temple.
1 Enoch is an anthology of five distinct works, composed over roughly three centuries.
The Four Quarters and Seven Mountains
The west quarter is named the diminished because there all the luminaries of the heaven wane and go down.
1nd the first quarter is called the east, because it is the first: and the second, the south, because the Most High will descend there, yea, there in quite a special sense will He who is blessed for ever descend.
2 And the west quarter is named the diminished, because there all the luminaries of the heaven wane and go down.
3 And the fourth quarter, named the north, is divided into three parts: the first of them is for the dwelling of men: and the second contains seas of water, and the abysses and forests and rivers, and darkness and clouds; and the third part contains the garden of righteousness.
4 I saw seven high mountains, higher than all the mountains which are on the earth: and thence comes forth hoar-frost, and days, seasons, and years pass away.
5 I saw seven rivers on the earth larger than all the rivers: one of them coming from the west pours its waters into the Great Sea.
6 And these two come from the north to the sea and pour their waters into the Erythraean Sea in the east.
7 And the remaining, four come forth on the side of the north to their own sea, two of them to the Erythraean Sea, and two into the Great Sea and discharge themselves there and some say: into the desert.
8 Seven great islands I saw in the sea and in the mainland: two in the mainland and five in the Great Sea.
Did You Know?
The west quarter is named the diminished because there all the luminaries of the heaven wane and go down.
The north quarter divides into three parts one for the dwelling of men one with seas abysses forests rivers darkness clouds and one with the garden of righteousness.
Seven high mountains higher than all the mountains which are on the earth send forth hoar-frost while days seasons and years pass away.
One of seven rivers larger than all the rivers comes from the west and pours its waters into the Great Sea.
Seven great islands exist in the sea and mainland with two in the mainland and five in the Great Sea.
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Commentary
In brief
The chapter recounts how the four quarters of the earth are named and divided, with the north containing the garden of righteousness, and describes seven high mountains from which seasons pass, seven large rivers pouring into seas, and seven great islands in the sea and mainland.