1 Enoch

About this book

Chapter 7

1 And all the others together with them took wives for themselves, each choosing one for himself, and they began to unite with them and defiled themselves with them.⁠ They taught them sorcery, spells, and the art of extracting medicinal substances from plants.⁠ 2 The women became pregnant and gave birth to enormous giants,⁠ whose height was three thousand ells.⁠ 3 These giants consumed everything humans produced. 4 And when humans could no longer support them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.⁠ 5 They began to sin against birds, beasts, reptiles, and fish, eating each other’s flesh and drinking the blood.⁠ 6 Then the earth brought charges against these lawbreakers.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 32:43 and 1 Enoch 7:6

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

Summary

1 Enoch 7 echoes the theme of Deuteronomy 32 by presenting a cry for justice that rises from the earth in response to bloodshed, leading to divine judgment. Both texts echo the pattern of the cry leading to action on behalf of the innocent.

Passages

Deuteronomy 32:43

Hebrew Bible

42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh—the blood of the slaughtered and captured, the chief of the enemy’s leaders.’” 43 Cry out, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge his servants’ blood; he will take vengeance against his enemies, and make atonement for his land and people. 44 Then Moses went with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

1 Enoch 7:6

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

2 The women became pregnant and gave birth to enormous giants, whose height was three thousand ells. 3 These giants consumed everything humans produced. 4 And when humans could no longer support them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. 5 They began to sin against birds, beasts, reptiles, and fish, eating each other’s flesh and drinking the blood. 6 Then the earth brought charges against these lawbreakers.

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

References

"... 1 Enoch 7:6 ... The earth on which blood is shed relays the cry for such vengeance. Here the voice 'brings accusation against' the giants. The idiom doubtless translates (compare 1 Enoch 22:5) an Aramaic technical term for bringing suit in court. For this usage with reference to an earthly court, compare 1 Enoch 103:4. For the theological usage compare 1QapGen 20:14 also 11QtgJob 8:2. As the ensuing narrative will show, the function of the cry here is to catalyze divine judgment. For this pattern, compare Deuteronomy 32:43 and its interpretations in Testament of Moses 9:7 and 2 Maccabees 8:3-4. For the same motif, compare Revelation 6:9-10. This complex of elements - the cry, its mediation by angels, and its function as catalyst - are additions to the biblical account ..."

George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 187.

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 Deuteronomy 32:43 and 1 Enoch 7:6

Summary

Passages

Deuteronomy 32:43

1 Enoch 7:6

References

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