1 Enoch 1
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1The words of the blessing of Enoch, wherewith he blessed the elect and righteous, who will be living in the day of tribulation, when all the wicked and godless are to be removed.
2And he took up his parable and said—Enoch a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come.
3Concerning the elect I said, and took up my parable concerning them: The Holy Great One will come forth from His dwelling,
4And the eternal God will tread upon the earth, (even) on Mount Sinai, [And appear from His camp] And appear in the strength of His might from the heaven of heavens.
5And all shall be smitten with fear, And the Watchers shall quake, And great fear and trembling shall seize them unto the ends of the earth.
6And the high mountains shall be shaken, And the high hills shall be made low, And shall melt like wax before the flame.
7And the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder, And all that is upon the earth shall perish, And there shall be a judgement upon all (men).
8But with the righteous He will make peace. And will protect the elect, And mercy shall be upon them. And they shall all belong to God, And they shall be prospered, And they shall all be blessed. And He will help them all, And light shall appear unto them, And He will make peace with them.
9And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
The chapter, studied
The Holy Great One Comes With Ten Thousand Holy Ones
Enoch opens with a blessing for "the elect and righteous" who will be alive in a coming day of tribulation. He describes a vision of God leaving His dwelling to tread the earth, and the whole created order, mountains, hills, earth itself, shaking at His approach. Judgment falls on the ungodly, but the elect receive peace, light, and mercy.
The book opens as a formal blessing, not a narrative: Enoch says he took up "his parable" the way a prophet takes up an oracle, and he is careful to say the vision was not for his own generation but "for a remote one which is for to come." That framing matters for how a reader should hold everything that follows: it presents itself as revelation for a later age, not history for its own day.
The theophany itself borrows the shape of an older poetic tradition: God coming from His dwelling, treading Mount Sinai, appearing "in the strength of His might from the heaven of heavens," with mountains melting like wax and the earth rent apart. The Watchers themselves are named among those who quake at His coming (v. 5), a detail that already points forward to the book's central concern: the angels who left their proper place will answer to the One who never left His.
Verse 9 is the chapter's hinge, and the most quoted line in the whole book: the Lord comes "with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgement upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly... and to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness." This is the exact line the apostle Jude places in the mouth of "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam" (Jude 14-15): one of the clearest points anywhere in Scripture where a New Testament writer directly quotes non-canonical material, without thereby granting the source the status of Scripture itself.
The chapter closes the way biblical prophecy often does: judgment for the godless, but peace, light, and inheritance of the earth for the righteous who make peace with Him: the same two-track ending that runs through the prophets and into the Sermon on the Mount.
Doors into the 66
- Jude 1:14 — Jude quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 almost verbatim, naming Enoch as its source: the clearest direct citation of the book anywhere in the New Testament.
- Deuteronomy 33:2 — Moses' blessing already pictures the LORD coming from Sinai "with ten thousands of saints" — the image Enoch 1 draws on and Jude later echoes.
- Matthew 5:5 — "They shall inherit the earth" for the elect in verse 8 stands beside the same promise in the Beatitudes.
Teachers on this ground
R. H. Charles
The Book of Enoch (1917)
The public-domain translation this shelf reads, with the critical introduction the field still builds on.
Johnny Enlow
The Book of Enoch: Paraphrase and Commentary (2025)
A living teacher's paraphrase of the whole book with his own running commentary, from the prophetic stream.
Michael S. Heiser
A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader's Commentary, Vol. I — The Book of the Watchers (2019)
A verse-by-verse reader's commentary on chapters 1–36: the closest thing in print to a study Bible for this section.
1The words of the blessing of Enoch, wherewith he blessed the elect and righteous, who will be living in the day of tribulation, when all the wicked and godless are to be removed.
2And he took up his parable and said—Enoch a righteous man, whose eyes were opened by God, saw the vision of the Holy One in the heavens, which the angels showed me, and from them I heard everything, and from them I understood as I saw, but not for this generation, but for a remote one which is for to come.
3Concerning the elect I said, and took up my parable concerning them: The Holy Great One will come forth from His dwelling,
4And the eternal God will tread upon the earth, (even) on Mount Sinai, [And appear from His camp] And appear in the strength of His might from the heaven of heavens.
5And all shall be smitten with fear, And the Watchers shall quake, And great fear and trembling shall seize them unto the ends of the earth.
6And the high mountains shall be shaken, And the high hills shall be made low, And shall melt like wax before the flame.
7And the earth shall be wholly rent in sunder, And all that is upon the earth shall perish, And there shall be a judgement upon all (men).
8But with the righteous He will make peace. And will protect the elect, And mercy shall be upon them. And they shall all belong to God, And they shall be prospered, And they shall all be blessed. And He will help them all, And light shall appear unto them, And He will make peace with them.
9And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
The language it was written in
Aramaic (the Qumran fragments' language); parts possibly Hebrew. The Parables (chs. 37–71) have no Qumran witness and their original language is debated.
What survives, and where
Aramaic: Dead Sea Scrolls
Eleven fragmentary manuscripts from Qumran Cave 4 covering every section except the Parables (3rd c. BC – 1st c. AD).
Greek
Substantial portions: chs. 1–32 (Codex Panopolitanus), quotations in Syncellus, and the Chester Beatty papyrus of the Epistle.
Ge’ez (Ethiopic)
The only complete text, preserved by the Ethiopian church, whose canon receives the book; the base of every full translation.
What you are reading here
R. H. Charles's 1917 English translation, made from the Ge’ez against the Greek and Aramaic evidence then known — public domain, quotable in full.
No tagged word floor exists for the Aramaic or Ge’ez text; word-by-word study on this shelf awaits a future ingest. What stands here is the manuscript story itself.