1 Enoch 102
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1In those days when He hath brought a grievous fire upon you, Whither will ye flee, and where will ye find deliverance? And when He launches forth His word against you Will you not be affrighted and fear?
2And all the luminaries shall be affrighted with great fear, And all the earth shall be affrighted and tremble and be alarmed.
3And all the angels shall execute their commands And shall seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Great Glory, And the children of earth shall tremble and quake; And ye sinners shall be cursed for ever, And ye shall have no peace.
4Fear ye not, ye souls of the righteous, And be hopeful ye that have died in righteousness.
5And grieve not if your soul into Sheol has descended in grief, And that in your life your body fared not according to your goodness, But wait for the day of the judgement of sinners And for the day of cursing and chastisement.
6And yet when ye die the sinners speak over you: ‘As we die, so die the righteous, And what benefit do they reap for their deeds?
7Behold, even as we, so do they die in grief and darkness, And what have they more than we? From henceforth we are equal.
8And what will they receive and what will they see for ever? Behold, they too have died, And henceforth for ever shall they see no light.’
9I tell you, ye sinners, ye are content to eat and drink, and rob and sin, and strip men naked, and acquire wealth and see good days.
10Have ye seen the righteous how their end falls out, that no manner of violence is found in them till their death?
11‘Nevertheless they perished and became as though they had not been, and their spirits descended into Sheol in tribulation.’
The chapter, studied
The Doubt of the Dying: Does Righteousness Pay?
Enoch warns that when God's judgment-fire comes, even the sun, moon, stars, and angels will tremble. He tells the righteous dead not to be troubled that their bodies did not fare well in life, then gives voice to the sinners' own doubt that righteousness pays off at all: "as we die, so die the righteous...henceforth we are equal."
The chapter's center is a bold move: it lets the skeptic speak in full, uncensored, for three verses (vv.6-8). "As we die, so die the righteous, and what benefit do they reap for their deeds?...From henceforth we are equal" is the same flat, leveling doubt found in the darker moods of wisdom literature: the suspicion that death erases every moral difference between the just and the unjust.
Enoch does not answer the doubt inside this chapter; he simply states it plainly, after placing the righteous dead's comfort earlier, in vv.4-5: "Fear ye not, ye souls of the righteous...wait for the day of the judgement of sinners." The structure is pastoral: comfort first, so the reader can hear the sinner's taunt in vv.6-8 without being persuaded by it, knowing an answer is still coming.
That answer arrives in the very next chapter's oath. Read together, chapters 102 and 103 form one unit: a real acknowledgment that death looks, on the surface, like it treats everyone the same, followed by Enoch's sworn insistence that appearances are not the last word.
Doors into the 66
- Ecclesiastes 9:2 — "henceforth we are equal" matches the Preacher's own observation that "all things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked".
- 1 Corinthians 15:32 — the sinners' logic: no lasting benefit for the righteous, so "let us eat and drink" in effect: stands beside Paul's own "if the dead rise not...let us eat and drink, for to morrow we die".
- Psalms 73:3 — the doubt voiced in the sinners' mouths stands beside the psalmist's own confession, "I was envious...when I saw the prosperity of the wicked", before he saw their end.
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.
1In those days when He hath brought a grievous fire upon you, Whither will ye flee, and where will ye find deliverance? And when He launches forth His word against you Will you not be affrighted and fear?
2And all the luminaries shall be affrighted with great fear, And all the earth shall be affrighted and tremble and be alarmed.
3And all the angels shall execute their commands And shall seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Great Glory, And the children of earth shall tremble and quake; And ye sinners shall be cursed for ever, And ye shall have no peace.
4Fear ye not, ye souls of the righteous, And be hopeful ye that have died in righteousness.
5And grieve not if your soul into Sheol has descended in grief, And that in your life your body fared not according to your goodness, But wait for the day of the judgement of sinners And for the day of cursing and chastisement.
6And yet when ye die the sinners speak over you: ‘As we die, so die the righteous, And what benefit do they reap for their deeds?
7Behold, even as we, so do they die in grief and darkness, And what have they more than we? From henceforth we are equal.
8And what will they receive and what will they see for ever? Behold, they too have died, And henceforth for ever shall they see no light.’
9I tell you, ye sinners, ye are content to eat and drink, and rob and sin, and strip men naked, and acquire wealth and see good days.
10Have ye seen the righteous how their end falls out, that no manner of violence is found in them till their death?
11‘Nevertheless they perished and became as though they had not been, and their spirits descended into Sheol in tribulation.’
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.