1 Enoch

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Chapter 34

1 And from there I went towards the north to the ends of the earth, and there I saw a great and glorious device at the ends of the whole earth. 2 And here I saw three portals of heaven open in the sky: through each of them north winds blow: when they blow, there is cold, hail, frost, snow, dew, and rain.⁠ 3 And from one portal they blow for good: but when they blow through the other two portals, it is with violence and affliction on the earth, and they blow with violence.

Texts in conversation

Compare Job 38:22 and 1 Enoch 34:2

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

Summary

In Job, God asks whether Job has entered the storehouse of the snow or the armory of the hail, a challenge Job cannot answer. In 1 Enoch, Enoch is given that tour, showing him the northern gates that release the snow and hail.

Passages

Job 38:22

Hebrew Bible

21 You know, for you were born before them; and the number of your days is great! 22 Have you entered the storehouse of the snow or seen the armory of the hail, 23 which I reserve for the time of trouble, for the day of war and battle? 24 In what direction is lightning dispersed, or the east winds scattered over the earth? 25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains and a path for the rumble of thunder, 26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, a wilderness where there are no human beings, 27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land, and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?

500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

1 Enoch 34:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

1 And from there I went towards the north to the ends of the earth, and there I saw a great and glorious device at the ends of the whole earth. 2 And here I saw three portals of heaven open in the sky: through each of them north winds blow: when they blow, there is cold, hail, frost, snow, dew, and rain. 3 And from one portal they blow for good: but when they blow through the other two portals, it is with violence and affliction on the earth, and they blow with violence.

300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

... Going beyond this, it is possible that there is a specific connection with Job 38, and that a contrast is intended between Job's lack of knowledge and the knowledge that Enoch possesses. Whereas Job cannot answer the string of rhetorical questions that are addressed to him about the elements of creation, in 1 Enoch 60:11-23 Enoch claims to have been shown what is secret in heaven and under the earth and describes the working of many of the phenomena that are listed in Job 38. Similarly, in 1 Enoch 71:4 Enoch claims to have been shown "all the secrets of the ends of heaven and all the storehouses of all the stars and all the lights." Enoch is presented here as having access to knowledge of the heavenly world that, according to Job 38, was denied to Job and, by implication, is inaccessible to other men. This serves to bolster the claim to authority for the revelation given by Enoch, but it does not fully explain why the material concerned with the workings of the cosmos was included in the Book of Parables and in other Enochic writings. ...

Michael A. Knibb, “Enoch and Wisdom: Reflections on the Character of the Book of Parables,” in Congress Volume Helsinki 2010, ed. Martti Nissinen, VTSup 148 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 268–269.

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

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare Job 38:22 and 1 Enoch 34:2

Summary

Passages

Job 38:22

1 Enoch 34:2

References

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