Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Enoch repaired to Azazel and the other fallen angels, to announce the
doom uttered against them. They all were filled with fear. Trembling
seized upon them, and they implored Enoch to set up a petition for them
and read it to the Lord of heaven, for they could not speak with God as
aforetime, nor even raise their eyes heavenward, for shame on account
of their sins. Enoch granted their request, and in a vision he was
vouchsafed the answer which he was to carry back to the angels. It
appeared to Enoch that he was wafted into heaven upon clouds, and was
set down before the throne of God. God spake: "Go forth and say to the
watchers of heaven who have sent thee hither to intercede for them:
Verily, it is you who ought to plead in behalf of men, not men in
behalf of you I Why did ye forsake the high, holy, and eternal heavens,
to pollute yourselves with the daughters of men, taking wives unto
yourselves, doing like the races of the earth, and begetting giant
sons? Giants begotten by flesh and spirits will be called evil spirits
on earth, and on the earth will be their dwelling-place. Evil spirits
proceed from their bodies, because they are created from above, and
from the holy watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they will
be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits they will be named. And the
spirits of heaven have their dwelling in heaven, but the spirits of the
earth, which were born upon the earth, have their dwelling on the
earth. And the spirits of the giants will devour, oppress, destroy,
attack, do battle, and cause destruction on the earth, and work
affliction. They will take no kind of food, nor will they thirst, and
they will be invisible. And these spirits will rise up against the
children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from
them. Since the days of murder and destruction and the death of the
giants, when the spirits went forth from the soul of their flesh, in
order to destroy without incurring judgment—thus will they destroy
until the day when the great consummation of the great world be
consummated. And now as to the watchers who have sent thee to intercede
for them, who had been aforetime in heaven, say to them: You have been
in heaven, and though the hidden things had not yet been revealed to
you, you know worthless mysteries, and in the hardness of your hearts
you have recounted these to the women, and through these mysteries
women and men work much evil on earth. Say to them therefore: You have
no peace!"[58]
ENOCH, RULER AND TEACHER
After Enoch had lived a long time secluded from men, he once heard the
voice of an angel calling to him: "Enoch, Enoch, make thyself ready and
leave the house and the secret place wherein thou hast kept thyself
hidden, and assume dominion over men, to teach them the ways in which
they shall walk, and the deeds which they shall do, in order that they
may walk in the ways of God."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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