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not done the commandment of the Lord, but have transgressed, and have slandered his greatness with high and hard words from your unclean mouths. Ye hard-hearted, ye will have no peace. 5. And therefore ye will curse your days, and the years of your lives perish; the everlasting curse will increase and ye will receive no mercy. 6. On that day ye will give away your peace for an everlasting curse to all the just, and they will ever curse you as sinners, you together with the sinners. 7. but for the chosen there will be light and joy and peace, and they will inherit the earth, but for you, the impious, there will be a curse. 8. And then also wisdom will be given to the chosen, and they will all live and not continue to sin; neither through wickedness nor through pride; but they in whom there is wisdom will be humble without continuing to sin. 9. And they will not be punished all the days of their lives, and will not die through plagues or judgments of wrath, but the number of the days of their lives will be completed, and their lives will become old in peace, and the years of their joy will be many in everlasting happiness and peace, for all the days of their lives. Chapters 1 to 5 contain the author’s introduction to his book, i-e. to 1-36 and 72-105. CuaP. 1, 1 gives the superscription. The blessing of Enoch is here introduced like the blessing of Moses over Israel before his death (Deut. xxxiii. 1). The writer proposes a double object—to announce the blessed condition of the just on the day of the final judgment, and the destruction of the sinners. The former is the more important object; and therefore he announces it first, and adds the second in a subordinate manner. The removal of the sinners is not their annihilation, but, as will soon appear, their removal from the earth to the place of punishment.—2. Cf. Num. xxiv. 3, 4, 15. Apocryphal writers claim inspiration for their works, and thus seek to put a pia fraus on a level with the canonical books. The character and source of the vision entitles it to the appellation holy. The sudden change from the third to the first person is not rare in this book; cf. 12:1-3 (37:1, 2; 70:1-3; 71:6); 92:1; 108:4. Changes of similar character are found Gen. xxii. 12; Isa. I. 29; iii. 26; v.8; xxii. 16; xxxi. 7; xlii. 20; in Gr. Thucyd. I. 128, 7; Xen. Hell. 5, 1, 31; and frequently in the Koran, The difference here noted between this generation and the far-off generations is not the HTR and the HTR, which in later Jewish theology designate the strictly pre and post Messianic times, but in general terms designates those that will live “in the days of the sinners.”—3. The speaking and conversing with God is the author’s interpretation of Gen. v. 24. The designation of God as the Holy and the Great One is strictly confined to this portion of the book, and is found neither in the Parables nor in the Noachic fragments; cf. 10:1; 14:1; 25:3; 84:1; 92:2; 97:6; 98:6; 104:9; simply Holy, 93:11; and Great, 14:2; God of the world, 12:3; 81:10; 84:2, and once in the Parables 58:4. He will come from his abode, which, like Isa. xxvi. 21; Mic. I. 3, indicates him as coming to judge-—4. Sinai, as the mount from which the law was given, will be the place upon which the Lord will descend to judge according to this law; cf. Deut. xxxiii. 2; Ps. lxviii. 17. God, who as HTR is the god of the heavenly hosts (cf. Delitzsch, Zeitschrift fiir uth. Theol. u. K., 1874, p. 217-222), is here accompanied by his host, who assist in the judgment, 1:9; 10:4; 90:21; 100:4; cf. also 1 Kings xxii. 19; Ps. ciii. 21—5. Watchers, cf. notes on chap. 12-16. Them, i.e. the inhabitants of the earth: cf. Jer. xxv. 30, 31. Ends of the earth, Isa. xlii. 10; Ps. Ixxii. 8; 1 Sam. ii. 10; Ps. xxii. 27; Ixvii. 7; xcviii. 3; Isa. xlv. 22; lii. 10; Zech. ix. 10.—6. Cf. Ps. xviii. 7; xcvii. 5; Hab. iii. 6; Judith xvi. 15. These sentiments expressed similarly in Assumptio Mosis, c. 10.—7. Here the two judgments, the temporary one or the deluge, and the final one, are blended into one, just as in 10:15 sqq. the period after the deluge and the Messianic times are combined.—8. The blessedness of the just is not a reward for their firmness, but, as is taught in the Old Testament, a gift of God. The HTR is the highest degree of bliss. God’s light shines for them, 38:2, and often, similar to Dan. xii. 3; cf. Isa. ii. 5; li. 4; Prov. vi. 23; Ps. cxix. 105.—9. The myriads of angels, more minutely explained 14:22; 40:1; 71:8, 13, are like those in Dan. vii. 10. All flesh shall be judged, Jer. xxv. 31. This is the verse that is quoted in a free manner in the Epistle of Jude 14 and 15.