Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch 27 describes a “cursed valley” near Jerusalem, which is based on the Valley of Ben Hinnom mentioned in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles as the site of child sacrifice. The connection suggests that 1 Enoch repurposes this location’s history with violent practices to portray it as the place of final judgment.
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2 Kings 23:10
Hebrew Bible
9 (Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.) 10 The king ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech. 11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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1 Enoch 27:2
Pseudepigrapha
1 Then I said: 'For what purpose is this blessed land, which is entirely filled with trees, and this cursed valley between them?' 2 Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered and said: 'This cursed valley is for those who are cursed forever: Here shall all the cursed be gathered who speak unseemly words against the Lord with their lips and speak harshly of His glory. Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be their place of judgment.' 3 In the last days, there shall be the spectacle of righteous judgment in the presence of the righteous forever: here the merciful shall bless the Lord of glory, the Eternal King. Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be the place of their habitation.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Accursed valley — The Greek reads gē kataratos. While gē is used in places in LXX to translate Hebrew ʾerets (“land, earth”), this may be a transliteration of Hebrew gayʾ/gēyʾ (“valley”), suggesting an identification (both in light of the description “accursed” and the Jerusalem proximity) with Hebrew gēyʾhinnôm (“Valley of Hinnom”) or Aramaic gēhinnām (Gehenna), “a valley located on the south slope of Jerusalem (Joshua 15:8; 18:16).” This valley was the site of pagan worship in the late preexilic era, one that involved taking children and “passing them through the fire” (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31; 32:35) ..."
Heiser, Michael S.
A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader’s Commentary, Vol. 1
(p. 224) Defender Publishing, 2019
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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