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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 5

1 Observe how the trees clothe themselves in green leaves and produce fruit: therefore, pay attention and understand all His creations, and realize how the Eternal One has made them so.⁠ 2 And all His works continue year after year forever, and all the tasks they perform for Him, and their tasks do not change, but happen just as God has decreed. 3 And see how the sea and the rivers also fulfill their tasks unchangingly according to His commands.⁠ 4 But you have not remained faithful, nor have you obeyed the Lord's commandments. Instead, you have turned away and spoken arrogantly and harshly with your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, you stubborn-hearted, you will find no peace.⁠ 5 Therefore, you will curse your own days, and the years of your life will vanish, and the years of your doom will increase in eternal condemnation, and you will find no mercy. 6 In those days, your names will become a curse forever to all the righteous, and all who curse will use your name, and all the sinners and the godless will swear by your name.⁠ And all the righteous will rejoice, and there will be forgiveness of sins, and every kind of mercy and peace and tolerance: There will be salvation for them, a splendid light. And for you sinners, there will be no salvation, but a curse will remain on you all. 7 And for you, the godless, there will be a curse. But for the chosen, there will be light, joy, and peace, and they shall inherit the earth.⁠ 8 And then wisdom will be granted to the chosen, and they will all live and never sin again, neither through ungodliness nor through pride; but those who are wise will be humble.⁠ 9 And they will not transgress again, nor will they sin all the days of their life, nor will they die of divine anger or fury, but they will complete the number of their days. And their lives will be lengthened in peace, and the years of their joy will be multiplied, in eternal happiness and peace, all the days of their life.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jeremiah 5:22 and 1 Enoch 5:3

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

1 Enoch follows the cosmology of Jeremiah and describes how the sea is held in place by a fixed boundary. This matches ancient Near Eastern traditions that describe the sea as a chaotic force that circles the land yet stays where God set it.

Passages

Jeremiah 5:22

Hebrew Bible
20 “Proclaim this message among the descendants of Jacob. Make it known throughout Judah. 21 Tell them: ‘Hear this, you foolish people who have no understanding, who have eyes but do not discern, who have ears but do not perceive: 22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord. “You should tremble in awe before me! I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea, a permanent barrier that it can never cross. Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail. They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary.” 23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone their own way.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

1 Enoch 5:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 And all His works continue year after year forever, and all the tasks they perform for Him, and their tasks do not change, but happen just as God has decreed. 3 And see how the sea and the rivers also fulfill their tasks unchangingly according to His commands. 4 But you have not remained faithful, nor have you obeyed the Lord's commandments. Instead, you have turned away and spoken arrogantly and harshly with your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, you stubborn-hearted, you will find no peace.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... A number of Israelite texts contrast nature's steadfast obedience to commands with humanity's divergence from the divine statutes. The language personifies nature's activity in a way that re-mythologizes the material creation: the natural elements are given personalities, reminiscent of the polytheistic worldview that placed gods and demigods in charge of the various parts of the cosmos. As a result, the human and nonhuman worlds are spoken of in the same terms. The earliest example of the motif is in the pre-exilic text Jeremiah 5:20-29 ... The passage may be implied in 1 Enoch 5:3 and has surely informed language in chapter 101 ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 153.

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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Jeremiah 5:22 and 1 Enoch 5:3

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