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82 of Heaven; and his nature is different, and he is not like us... And it seems to me that he is not sprung from me hut from the angels. In other words, Lamech suspected that his wife's preg- nancy was induced not by him but by one of the "sons of the God of Heaven," one of the "Watchers"! The distraught Lamech came to his father Metushelah not only to share the problem with him but also to request spe- cific assistance. We learn at this point that Enoch, who was taken by the Elohim to be with them, was still alive and well, residing in a "dwelling place among the angels"—not in the distant heavens, but "at the ends of the Earth." So Lamech asked his father to reach there his father Enoch, and ask him to investigate whether any of the Watchers had mated with Lamech's wife. Reaching the place but prohibited from enter- ing it, Metushelah called out for Enoch, and after a while Enoch, hearing the call, responded. Thereupon Metushelah related the unusual birth to Enoch, and Lamech's doubts about the true identity of Noah's father. Confirming that inter- marriage resulting in demigod children had indeed begun in the time of Jared, Enoch nevertheless assured his son that Noah is a son of Lamech and that his unusual countenance and brilliant mind are omens that "there shall come a Deluge and great destruction for one year," but Noah and his family are destined to be saved. All that, Enoch said, he knows because "the Lord has showed me and informed me, and I have read it in the heavenly tablets." According to the Hebrew-Aramaic fragment of the Book of Noah that was discovered among the Dead Sea scrolls, the first reaction by Lamech on seeing his highly unusual son was to question his wife Bath-Enosh ("Daughter/offspring of Enosh"). As translated by T.H. Gaster (The Dead Sea Scrip- tures) and H. Dupont-Sommer (The Essene Writings from Qumran) column II of the scroll fragment begins with La- mech confessing that, as soon as he saw the baby Noah, I thought in my heart that the conception was from one of the Watchers, one of the Holy Ones... DIVINE ENCOUNTERS