1 Enoch 5:6

Pseudepigrapha

1 Observe ⌈⌈ye⌉⌉ how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed ⌈and know⌉ with regard to all ⌈His works⌉, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. 2 And ⌈all⌉ His works go on ⌈thus⌉ from year to year for ever, and all the tasks ⌈which⌉ they accomplish for Him, and ⌈their tasks⌉ change not, but according as ⌈⌈God⌉⌉ hath ordained so is it done. 3 And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and ⌈change not⌉ their tasks ⌈from His commandments⌉. 4 But ye--ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord, But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words With your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace. 5 Therefore shall ye execrate your days, And the years of your life shall perish, And ⌈the years of your destruction⌉ shall be multiplied in eternal execration, And ye shall find no mercy. 6 In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous, And by you shall ⌈all⌉ who curse, curse, And all the sinners ⌈and godless⌉ shall imprecate by you, 7 And all the . . . shall rejoice, And there shall be forgiveness of sins, And every mercy and peace and forbearance: There shall be salvation unto them, a goodly light. And for all of you sinners there shall be no salvation, But on you all shall abide a curse.

Sanhedrin 108a

Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic

The Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta, Sota 3:10): The generation of the flood became haughty and sinned due only to the excessive goodness that the Holy One, Blessed be He, bestowed upon them. And what is written concerning them, indicating that goodness? “Their houses are safe without fear, nor is the rod of God upon them” (Job 21:9). And it is written: “Their bull sires, and will not fall; their cow calves, and does not cast her calf” (Job 21:10). And it is written: “They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance” (Job 21:11). And it is written: “They sing to the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe” (Job 21:12). And it is written: “They shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures” (Job 36:11). And it is written: “And peacefully they go down to the grave” (Job 21:13).

 Notes and References

"... In order to illustrate the overbearing arrogance of the Generation of the Flood towards God, the early Tanna, Rabbi Akiva, cites a verse which figures prominently in Aggadic sources relating to the Antediluvians, Job 21:15 (See Avot d'Rabbi Natan, Version A) ... Akiva's association of Job 21:15 with the very early tradition of Antediluvians' rejection of Divine Authority, (See 1 Enoch 8:2-3, also 5:6; 2 Enoch 34:1-2 - recensions A and B) which is a major theme in rabbinic Aggadah, may presuppose a more comprehensive exposition of a whole series of verses from chapter 21, which occurs widely in tannaitic sources. The detailed account of the well-being of the wicked contained in verses 9-13 was regarded by early rabbinic exegetes as a record of the considerable prosperity bestowed by God upon the Generation of the Flood, who responded with an arrogant denial of their Benefactor's authority ..."

Jacobs, Irving The Midrashic Process: Tradition and Interpretation in Rabbinic Judaism (p. 27) Cambridge University Press, 1995

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