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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 9

1 Then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven⁠ and saw much blood being shed on the earth, and all the lawlessness being committed on the earth.⁠ 2 They said to one another: 'The earth, left without inhabitants, cries out, and the voice of their crying reaches the gates of heaven.'⁠ 3 'And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men plead, saying, "Present our case before the Most High."'⁠ 4 They said to the Lord of the ages:⁠ 'Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings,⁠ and God of the ages,⁠ the throne of Your glory stands through all generations,⁠ and Your name is holy and glorious and blessed through all ages!⁠ 5 You have created all things, and over all things You have power. All things are open and visible in Your sight, and You see everything, and nothing can hide from You.⁠ 6 You see what Azâzêl has done, who has taught all unrighteousness on the earth and revealed the eternal secrets that were kept in heaven,⁠ which men were eager to learn.⁠ 7 And Semjâzâ, to whom You gave the authority to rule over his companions. 8 They have gone to the daughters of men on the earth, have lain with the women, have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. 9 The women have borne giants, and as a result the whole earth has been filled with blood and unrighteousness. 10 And now the souls of those who have died are crying out and pleading at the gates of heaven, and their laments have risen up; they cannot stop because of the lawless acts committed on the earth.⁠ 11 You know all things before they happen, and You see these things and allow them, and You do not tell us what we should do about them.'⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 9:1 and 1 Enoch 87:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In 1 Enoch 9 four named archangels look down from heaven at the violence below. 1 Enoch 87, a distinct book within the book, echoes that in a coded animal vision, where the same four appear as men sent down from the sky as agents of judgment.

Passages

1 Enoch 9:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 Then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed on the earth, and all the lawlessness being committed on the earth. 2 They said to one another: 'The earth, left without inhabitants, cries out, and the voice of their crying reaches the gates of heaven.' 3 'And now to you, the holy ones of heaven, the souls of men plead, saying, "Present our case before the Most High."'
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

1 Enoch 87:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 Again I saw how they began to attack each other and to devour each other, and the earth began to cry out loudly. 2 I looked again to heaven, and I saw in the vision beings who came out of heaven and looked like white men; four came out from that place, and three with them. 3 Those three who had come out last took me by the hand and lifted me up, away from the generations of the earth, and raised me to a high place, and showed me a tower raised high above the earth, with all the hills lower than it.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

... The archangels’ intercession, described at length in chapter 9, is reserved in this vision for the time near the eschaton (89:70-71, 76-77; 90:14, 17). The present context and 88:1—89:1 presume the commissioning of angels as agents of judgment (chapter 10), and in 87:2 (compare 86:1, 3) Enoch looks to heaven and sees them dispatched from heaven. They are numbered in two groups. The four, who will be active in 88:1—89:1, correspond to the four in chapter 10. The other three fill the complement of seven mentioned in chapter 20, although in chapters 21-33 all seven accompany Enoch on his visions. ...
George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 374.

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 9:1 and 1 Enoch 87:2

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