1 Enoch 12
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1Before these things Enoch was hidden, and no one of the children of men knew where he was hidden, and where he abode, and what had become of him.
2And his activities had to do with the Watchers, and his days were with the holy ones.
3And I Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! the Watchers called me—Enoch the scribe—and said to me:
4‘Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go, declare to the Watchers of the heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of earth do, and have taken unto themselves wives:
5“Ye have wrought great destruction on the earth: And ye shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin: and inasmuch as they delight themselves in their children,
6The murder of their beloved ones shall they see, and over the destruction of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication unto eternity, but mercy and peace shall ye not attain.”’
The chapter, studied
Enoch the Scribe Is Sent Back to the Watchers
Before the events already described, Enoch had been hidden away, his whereabouts unknown to other people, spending his time among the Watchers and the holy ones. While Enoch is blessing God, the Watchers themselves call on him: "Enoch the scribe" — and send him to declare their coming judgment to the fallen Watchers directly.
The chapter marks a clear seam in the book: it steps back in time ("before these things Enoch was hidden") to explain how Enoch came to be the messenger for the judgment just narrated. His title here, "Enoch the scribe" and "thou scribe of righteousness," is deliberate: he is not portrayed as a prophet speaking his own words but as a recorder and deliverer of a verdict already decided elsewhere.
The commission itself (vv. 4-6) is blunt: Enoch is to tell the fallen Watchers plainly that they will have "no peace nor forgiveness of sin," and that their own children's deaths will be the grief they are made to witness. It is the first time in the book that a fallen Watcher hears the sentence spoken directly to his face, rather than reported about him in a heavenly court.
Doors into the 66
- Genesis 5:24 — "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" is the single verse this whole book expands into extended narrative about where Enoch was and what he saw.
- Hebrews 11:5 — "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death" names the same unexplained removal Genesis records, read here as time spent among heavenly beings.
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.
Michael S. Heiser
Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ (2017)
How the Watchers story of these chapters stands behind New Testament theology.
Gary Wayne
The Genesis 6 Conspiracy (2014)
A topical case for the Watchers reading these chapters narrate: giants, bloodlines, and the seed war.
Timothy Alberino
Birthright: The Coming Posthuman Apocalypse and the Usurpation of Adam's Dominion on Planet Earth (2020)
Reads the Watchers rebellion of these chapters into the Bible's larger dominion story.
1Before these things Enoch was hidden, and no one of the children of men knew where he was hidden, and where he abode, and what had become of him.
2And his activities had to do with the Watchers, and his days were with the holy ones.
3And I Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! the Watchers called me—Enoch the scribe—and said to me:
4‘Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go, declare to the Watchers of the heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of earth do, and have taken unto themselves wives:
5“Ye have wrought great destruction on the earth: And ye shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin: and inasmuch as they delight themselves in their children,
6The murder of their beloved ones shall they see, and over the destruction of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication unto eternity, but mercy and peace shall ye not attain.”’
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.