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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 57

1 And it happened after that, I saw another group of chariots, with men riding them,⁠ arriving on the winds from the east, the west, and the south.⁠ 2 The sound of their chariots was heard, and when this disturbance occurred, the holy ones from heaven took notice, and the foundations of the earth shifted from their places,⁠ and the noise was heard from one end of the sky to the other, all in one day. 3 And everyone will fall down and worship the Lord of Spirits. And this marks the end of the second Parable.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 57:1 and 4 Ezra 13:47

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

1 Enoch and 4 Ezra both describe the return of Israel’s scattered tribes as the last act before judgment. 1 Enoch depicts them flying on chariots and riding the wind, while 4 Ezra depicts them marches them home across the dried-up Euphrates River.

Passages

1 Enoch 57:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And it happened after that, I saw another group of chariots, with men riding them, arriving on the winds from the east, the west, and the south. 2 The sound of their chariots was heard, and when this disturbance occurred, the holy ones from heaven took notice, and the foundations of the earth shifted from their places, and the noise was heard from one end of the sky to the other, all in one day. 3 And everyone will fall down and worship the Lord of Spirits. And this marks the end of the second Parable.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

4 Ezra 13:47

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · 2 Esdras
46 Then they lived there until the latter time. Now when they begin to come again, 47 the Most High stops the springs of the River again, that they may go through. Therefore you saw the multitude gathered together with peace. 48 But those who are left behind of your people are those who are found within my holy border.
70–132 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4 Ezra

References

... Different from 56:5-8, which is given as a straightforward prediction, the contents of these verses are recounted as something that Enoch “saw” (verse 1). Unfortunately, there is no account of an interpreting angel explaining the less-than-clear vision, and we are left to choose among three possible interpretations of the chapter. (1) A majority of commentators see here a description of the return of the Israelite dispersion. (2) A few others understand it to refer to the arrival of another hostile army. (3) This may reflect prophetic predictions that the gentiles will flow to Jerusalem to pay tribute to the God of Israel. That the people riding in a host of chariots represent the returning Israelite dispersion is taken for granted by commentators who espouse the first interpretation. This is understandable, since such a return is a common topic in biblical and in later Jewish literature and this time. See, for example, Isaiah 27:12-13; 49:12; 60:4-9; 66:19-20; Zechariah 8:7-8; Tobit 13:9-18; 14:5; Baruch 4:21-5:9; Psalms of Solomon 8:28 (34); 11; 4 Ezra 13:39-50. ...
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 213.

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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1 Enoch 57:1 and 4 Ezra 13:47

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