4Q201

The Enoch Scroll

Dead Sea Scrolls · 160 B.C.E. - 60 B.C.E.

And all of them said to him: “We will take an oath and swear, all under oath, one to another not to go back, any of us, on this enterprise until we have completed this work”. Then they took an oath all of them together and they swore under oath with each other. They were two hundred, all who went down in the days of Yared upon the peak of Mount Hermon. They called the mountain “Hermon” because they took an oath and swore under oath with each other upon it. ... And these are the names of their chiefs. Shemihazah who was their head, Arataqoph, his second; Ramtael, third to him; Kokabe l, fourth to him;... el, fifth to him; Ramael, sixth to him; Daniel, seventh to him; Ziqiel (cf. Ena,c), eighth to him; Baraqel, ninth to him; Asael, tenth to him; Hermoni (Enc), eleventh to him; Matarel, twelfth to him; Ananel, thirteenth to him; Stawel, fourteenth to him; Shamshiel, fifteenth to him; Shahriel, sixteenth to him; Tummiel, seventeenth to him; Turiel, eighteenth to him; Yomiel, nineteenth to him; Yehaddiel, twentieth to him. These are the chiefs of the chiefs of tens. These and their chiefs took for themselves wives from all those whom they chose and they began to go in to them and defile themselves with them and to teach them sorcery and magic ... And they became pregnant by them and bore giants ...[1] ... some three thousand cubits tall, who were born upon the earth in keeping with their infancy and grew at the rate of their growth and consumed the work of all the sons of men, but not were the men able to supply them. The giants plotted to kill the men and to consume them. They began to sin and to ... against all the birds and animals of the earth and (against) the reptiles who move upon the earth and in the waters and in the sky and the fish of the sea, and to consume the flesh of one another and drink the blood. Then ...

Words of blessing with which Enoch blessed the chosen just ones, who will be present on the day of distress to eliminate all the enemies and wicked people, while the just will be saved. Enoch, a just man to whom a vision of the Holy One and of heaven was revealed, announced his oracles and said: “The vision of the Holy One of heaven was revealed to me, and I heard it all from the words of the Watchers and the Holy Ones and because I heard it from them, I knew and understood everything not for this generation but for a future generation I shall speak. Now I speak about the chosen, concerning them I declare my oracle, saying: The Great Holy One shall leave his dwelling and the eternal God will descend upon the earth and will walk to Mount Sinai and will appear with his great army and will appear in the strength of his might from the height of the heavens. All the Watchers will shake and will be punished in secret places in all the ends of the earth; all the ends of the earth will split and they will be seized with shuddering and fear as far as the edges of the earth. They will split and fall and the heights will dissolve and the high mountains will be made low ...

they appear in their constellations and they do not transgress their order. Observe the earth and consider its works from the first to the last, how none changes and everything is visible to you. Observe the signs of the summer: ... above it. And the signs of winter: how all the earth is filled with water and the clouds pour rain. Observe how all the trees wither altogether and lose all their leaves, apart from fourteen trees whose leaves remain, and do not renew their leaves until two or three years go by. Observe for yourselves the signs of summer: how then (in it) the sun burns and warms and you look for shade and relief from it upon the scorching face of the earth without finding a way of walking on the dust or on the stones because of the heat. Observe and understand all the trees; on all of them their leaves sprout, turn green, and cover the trees, and all their fruits are for splendid praise. Praise and consider all these works and realise that God, who lives for everlasting eternity, has made all these works. Year after year his works do not change, instead they all carry out his word. However, you have changed your works and do not carry out his word, instead you trespassed against him with great and harsh (words) with your unclean mouth against his greatness. Hard-hearted ones, there will be no peace for you! This is why you will curse your days and the years of your life will perish ... The years of your destruction will increase with an everlasting curse. There will be no mercy or peace for you. This is why your name will be (an) everlasting curse for all the just ones and through you will be cursed all the accursed; and all the sinners and evil ones will swear by you, and to all the sinners ...

Shemihazah taught incantations and (how) to cut roots; Hermoni taught (how) to undo magic, sorcery, magic and skills; Baraq’el taught the signs of the shafts; Kokab’el taught the signs of the stars; Zeq’el taught the signs of the lightning; ’Ar‘teqof taught the signs of the earth; Shamshi’el taught the signs of the sun; Sahari’el taught the signs of the moon. And all began to reveal secrets to their wives, and because of this doing men expired from the earth, and the outcry went right up to the heaven. Then Michael, Sariel, Raphael, Gabriel gazed from the sanctuaries of the heavens to the earth and saw much blood poured upon the earth and all the earth was filled with wickedness and violence perpetrated upon it. Hearing this the four of them went and said to themselves that the outcry and the wail for the destruction of the sons of the earth went right up to the gates of heaven. And they said to the holy ones of heaven: “It is now to you, holy ones of heaven to whom the souls of the sons of men appeal saying: ...

... Teach the just man what he had to do and the son of Lamech to save his soul for life and to escape for ever. And from him a plant will be planted and all the generations of the worlds will be founded. He said to Raphael; “Go, then, Raphael and bind Azael hand and foot and hurl him into darkness”...

... And all the sons of men will become just and all of them will worship me; every nation will bless me and prostrate itself. The whole earth will be cleansed of all defilement and all impurity. And I shall not again send upon them either anger or punishment for all the generations of the world. And then I will open ...

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