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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 16

1 From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants,⁠ from whose flesh the spirits have emerged, they will destroy without facing judgment—thus they will destroy until the day of the final judgment, when the era will end, encompassing both the Watchers and the godless, and indeed, it shall be completely finished. 2 And now, regarding the Watchers who sent you to intercede for them, who were formerly in heaven, say to them: 3 'You were in heaven, yet not all mysteries were revealed to you, and you learned worthless things. You taught these things to women through the hardness of your hearts, and because of these mysteries, both women and men commit much evil on earth.' 4 Therefore, say to them: 'You have no peace.'

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 13:33 and 1 Enoch 16:1

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

Numbers 13 describes the Nephilim as fearsome, emphasizing their great size. 1 Enoch 16 echoes this reference to the Nephilim using similar language to describe them, reinforcing their identity as a notable race of giants.

Passages

Numbers 13:33

Hebrew Bible
32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there are of great stature. 33 We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed like grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

1 Enoch 16:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants, from whose flesh the spirits have emerged, they will destroy without facing judgment—thus they will destroy until the day of the final judgment, when the era will end, encompassing both the Watchers and the godless, and indeed, it shall be completely finished. 2 And now, regarding the Watchers who sent you to intercede for them, who were formerly in heaven, say to them: 3 'You were in heaven, yet not all mysteries were revealed to you, and you learned worthless things. You taught these things to women through the hardness of your hearts, and because of these mysteries, both women and men commit much evil on earth.'
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... The origins and connotations of nephilim as a term for giants (compare Numbers 13:33) are obscure. If the Greek or the Hebrew with its plural ending does represent the original Semitic text, our author has taken over a word from the biblical text as a technical term. (Note the Hebrew ending also in the gloss of 1 Enoch 16:1) Even more obscure is the author's term for the third generation. Evidently, he has given a name to 'the men of name' ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 185.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Numbers 13:33 and 1 Enoch 16:1

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