Page Content (OCR)
22. And also the spirits of the water and of the winds, and of all the zephyrs and their paths, according to all the unions of the spirits. 23. And in it are preserved the repositories of the voice of thunder and of the light of the lightning, and there are preserved the repositories of hail and of the hoar-frost, and the repositories of the fog, and the repositories of the rain and of the dew. 24. And all these believe in and render thanks before the Lord of the spirits, and praise him with all their power, and their food is all thanksgiving, and they thank and praise and exalt in the name of the Lord of the spirits to all eternity. 25. And over them this oath is strong, and they are preserved by it, and their paths are preserved, and the courses are not destroyed. 26. And there was great joy among them, and they blessed and honored and exalted, because the name of the Son of man had been revealed unto them. 27. And he sat upon the throne of his glory, and the sum of the judgment was given to him, the Son of man, and he causes to disappear and to be destroyed the sinners from the face of the earth, and also those who have led astray the earth. 28. They shall be bound with chains and shall be imprisoned in the assembling-place of destruction, and all their work shall disappear from the face of the earth. 29. And from that time on there will be nothing that will be destroyed, for he, the Son of man, has appeared, and sits on the throne of his glory, and all wickedness will disappear before his face and depart; but the word of that Son of man will be strong before the Lord of the spirits. This is the third Parable of Enoch. Cuap.65, 1. Now follows to 69:25 another Noachic interpolation. That it is such appears beyond a doubt from its contents. It has the peculiarities of chapter 60, and treats of the same subject, viz. revelation to Noah concerning the flood and attending circumstances. It is entirely of a fragmentary character, and certainly never existed as a tract of itself. In thought and expression it seeks to imitate the Parables. That Noah is here introduced as the seer alone stamps it as an addition foreign to the rest of the book. In 60:2 the vision was inaugurated with a motion of the heavens; here it is done by a curving of the earth —2. Enoch had ascended on high, 60:8, from the garden of Eden, therefore Noah goes to the ends of the earth to seek his explanation of what he had seen.—3. The earth is here represented as weak and sickly, undoubtedly as a result of sin —4. Before an answer was returned there was a violent shaking of the earth. A voice, cf. vs. 6.—6. A command was the voice heard in vs. 4. The destruction of the earth is at hand. Secrets of the angels, i.e. of the fallen; cf. 7:1; 8:1 sqq. Angels and satans; a clear proof that the fragmentist seeks to imitate the Parables, as the satans are unknown to the first part; cf. note on 40:7. Metal images; same as idolatry in chap. 7 and 8.—7. Out of the dust, cf. Job xxviii. 2. Soft metal, cf. 52:2, 5.—8. This soft metal is declared to be lead and zinc, whose origin the author, after his peculiar manner (cf. 60:13-15, 16, 21, etc.), explains in anything but a clear way. That even this mysterious fountain has its angel agrees perfectly with 60:16 sqq.—9. Cf. vs. 4. —10. Through their astrology (8:3) these sinners had learned that a judgment would come ata certain time, but on account of their sins God will not wait to the completion of that time; cf. also Tertullian, De Cultu Fem. I. 10: Et metallorum opera nudaverunt..... et incantationem vires promulgaverunt et omnem curiositatem usque ad stellarum interpretationem designaverunt.—1 1. Enoch here speaks to Noah. Free, cf. Gen. vi. 9.—12. Noah is to be the father of a generation of the righteous. Fountain, cf. Deut. xxxiii. 28; Ps. Ixviii. 26. Cuap. 66, 1. The angels of punishment, found only in the Parables (cf. notes on 53:3), are taken over from there, and are here employed for a purpose entirely foreign to them. Above they were employed in the final punishment, but here in the first. The object of the interpolator to connect his statements with the Parables is observed again here.—2. There is no difficulty in accepting angels here as referring to those mentioned in the previous verses. The angels of punishment are, although enemies of God, nevertheless subordinate to his will, like Satan in the Book of Job; cf. note on 40:7.