The Book of Enoch-pages

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The Book of Enoch-pages

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revelation of the Torah. Court, scarcely Palestine, 89:2, because the giving of the law was already in the end thereof, but rather a central place of worship, the tabernacle, 89:34, 35.—7. The fifth week ends with the building of Solomon’s temple. Supremacy, referring to the temple; cf. next verse; i.e. of religious supremacy, as the temple is the house of the Great King, 91:13. To eternity, for in the Messianic times it shall be rebuilt.—8. The sixth week ends with the burning of the temple and the Captivity. It is the period of religious degeneration, 89:51 sqq. A man shall ascend, i.e. Elijah; cf. 89:52. Forgetting true wisdom is synonymous with departure from God. —9. The seventh is the week in which the author lived, and hence he characterizes it tow . 1 or ao. tre 4 c more minutely; it is a rebellious age, i.e. rebellious not politically, but against God and his laws; cf. 89:73-75.—10. As according to the whole spirit and letter of the book the condition of the just shall not be ameliorated until after the judgment and the condemnation of the sinners, the reward here spoken of, and the seven portions of learning must refer to something given them during the Messianic reign. It is in all probability the much-lauded wisdom that is to form one of the blessings of this reign, e.g. 91:10; 92:1, and often. To see in vs. 11-14 an epexegesis of this verse, so that the sevenfold learning consists in the instruction on the physical world (Dillmann), or that this learning should refer to the book of Enoch itself, is certainly a mistake. Even if our author is not overburdened with modesty, he would scarcely dare to put a sevenfold higher estimate on his instructions than on the biblical. Besides, the author has been treating the history of his people solely and alone from a purely religious stand-point, and now to sum up all wisdom and warning in the strange, and by no means genial statements of the next verses is not only an improbability, but an impossibility. If these words are from the author of the previous parts, they certainly do not belong here; but it is more probable that they are the product of some imaginative interpolator. The attempts made to determine from the known lengths of the first six weeks the unknown length of the seventh, either by counting the years, or by reckoning, after the biblical manner, by generations have all proved mere guesswork, and have only the merit of ingenious and interesting hypotheses.—11. Voice of the Holy One, i.e. thunder; cf. Job xxxvii. 4, 5; Ps. xxix.; xlvi. 7; Ixxvii. 17, 18. The incomprehensibility of God’s thoughts, Job xxxviii. 33; Ps. xl. 5; xcii. 5, 6—12. Cf. Isa. xl. 13; Prov. xxx. 4; Eccles. xi. 5. Ascend, Job xxxviii. 22; Prov. xxx. 4. Their ends, probably ends of heaven so frequently spoken of above.—13. Job xxxviii. 5, 18.—14. Heaven, Job xi. 8; Isa. xl. 12; Jer. xxxi. 37. Established, 18:2, 3 (69:16). Now follow the other weeks in 91:12-17. The eighth week, the first one of the Messianic period, is that of justice, the time of the sword, 90:19 (cf. vs. 34); 91:11. Into the hands of the just, 38:5; 92:4; 95:7; 96:1; 98:12. The end of this period will be marked by the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the temple; cf. in general Ex. I. 21; 2 Sam. vii. 11; Isa. Ix. 21, 22; Ixv. 20-23. Great King, 84:5.—14. The ninth week is the week of the judgment, however not of the final one. Dillmann explains it from 50:2-5; 90:30, 33, 35, as referring to the time when the true religion will proceed from Jerusalem to the so far neutral heathen nations to teach them to acknowledge the true God, and this certainly best harmonizes with the last clause. Will depart, 10:16, 20, 21; 92:5; cf. Ps. cii. 26, sq.; Isa. Ixv. 17; lxvi. 22.—15. The tenth week ends with the final judgment. Watchmen, of course the fallen angels. Even with this difference that the judgment over these watchmen is elsewhere placed in the beginning of the Messianic times, 90:21 sqq., 10:12; and 16:1, the lengthy exposition of the future times occasions a doubt as to the authenticity of these verses. That they are an interpolation is almost a certainty, from the fact that the future here is pictured without any mention of the Messiah whatever being made; cf. Introd.—16. Powers, 82:8. Sevenfold, Isa. xxx. 26; lx. 19, 20; Zech. xiv. 6, 7.—17. Mentioned, Isa. Ixv. 17. Cuap. 94. The parenetic part proper, commencing here, continues to chap. 105, the end of the original book. This verse has much similarity with 91:3. Enoch’s exhortations are intended principally for the faithful. Cease, cf. Ps. I. 6. The suddenness of the sinner’s destruction is noted also in vs. 6 and 96:1 and 97:10.—2. It will easily be possible for his children to discover these paths of justice, for they will be revealed through Moses and the prophets. Paths of death, Prov. xiv. 12 (xvi. 25); Jer. xxi. 83. Having revealed the source of this justice, he reiterates his exhortation. Approach, 91:4; 104:6.—4. Pleasing, i.e. in the sight of God. Paths of peace, as the opposite of the paths of death. —5. This warning is of special importance, because in future times this justice, as taught by the sages of the Old Testament, will be changed and transformed and opposed