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2 Enoch

Secrets of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 9

1 'This place, Enoch, is prepared for the righteous,⁠ who endure all kinds of wrongs from those who torment them,⁠ who turn their eyes away from wickedness, and judge justly, and give bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with clothing, and raise up the fallen, and help injured orphans,⁠ and who walk without fault before the face of the Lord, and serve him alone, and for them this place is prepared for eternal inheritance.'

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 58:7 and 2 Enoch 9:1

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

Isaiah 58 describes sharing food with the hungry and clothing the naked as better than fasting. 2 Enoch 9 echoes this when it portrays the righteous as those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and help the fallen.

Passages

Isaiah 58:7

Hebrew Bible
6 No, this is the kind of fast I want: I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke. 7 I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe them! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood. 8 Then your light will shine like the sunrise; your restoration will quickly arrive; your godly behavior will go before you, and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

2 Enoch 9:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
1 'This place, Enoch, is prepared for the righteous, who endure all kinds of wrongs from those who torment them, who turn their eyes away from wickedness, and judge justly, and give bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with clothing, and raise up the fallen, and help injured orphans, and who walk without fault before the face of the Lord, and serve him alone, and for them this place is prepared for eternal inheritance.'
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

References

... The late 2 Enoch similarly lists (in this case positively) the virtues of the righteous: [who] suffer every kind of calamity in their life and who afflict their souls, and who avert their eyes from injustice, and who carry out righteous judgments, and who give bread to the hungry, and who cover the naked with clothing, and who lift up the fallen, and who help the injured and the orphans, and who walk without a defect before the face of the Lord, and who worship him only. (2 Enoch 9; compare also 42) There are some similarities with the list in Isaiah 58:6–9, on the characteristics of the ‘true’ fast, which involves feeding the hungry and being kind to those in need generally (though here again Sabbath-observance makes its appearance). Malachi 3:5, seldom mentioned in discussions of digests, seems close to this tradition, with much about the treatment of employees, though it also mentions the classic sins, false worship and adultery, the second of which in rabbinic Judaism became the primary reference of the word ra‘, evil ...
John Barton, Ethics in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 233.

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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Isaiah 58:7 and 2 Enoch 9:1

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