1 Enoch 15
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: ‘Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice.
2And go, say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them: "You should intercede for men, and not men for you:
3Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons?
4And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish.
5Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth.
6But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world.
7And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.
8And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.
9Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.
10[As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.]
11And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences.
12And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.
The chapter, studied
"You Should Intercede for Men, and Not Men for You"
God speaks to Enoch directly, rejecting the Watchers' petition. He points out that the Watchers were spiritual, immortal beings who had no need of wives, unlike mortal men, and that by taking human wives and defiling themselves they have forfeited what they were. Their giant children, now dying, will become evil spirits that remain on the earth to cause harm.
God's rebuke turns on a single distinction the Watchers erased: they were made "spiritual, living the eternal life," a category entirely apart from "the children of men... who die and perish." Verse 3-4 makes the accusation as sharp as anywhere in the book: they have "defiled yourselves with the blood of women" and "lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish," trading an immortal nature for a mortal appetite that was never theirs to take up.
The chapter's most consequential line for later tradition is verse 8-9: the giants, being "produced from the spirits and flesh," do not simply cease to exist when their bodies are destroyed: they become "evil spirits upon the earth," a hybrid origin explicitly traced "from the holy Watchers." This is the text's own account of where a category of malevolent spirit comes from, distinct from the Watchers themselves who remain bound.
It closes on reversal: "you should intercede for men, and not men for you" (v. 2) inverts the created order the Watchers were meant to serve in: heavenly beings existed to minister on behalf of humanity, not to require humanity's pleading on their behalf.
This chapter is the text's own explanation for the origin of unclean spirits within the Watchers framework: not human souls, but a hybrid remnant of the giants, distinct from the Watchers who remain bound (chapter 10) awaiting judgment. The site follows Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 in reading the underlying event as real angelic rebellion, while 1 Enoch remains a labeled extra-biblical witness to that event rather than Scripture itself.
Doors into the 66
- Jude 1:6 — "Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation" is the New Testament's own brief summary of the transgression this chapter explains at length.
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.
1And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: ‘Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice.
2And go, say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them: "You should intercede for men, and not men for you:
3Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons?
4And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish.
5Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth.
6But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world.
7And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.
8And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.
9Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.
10[As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.]
11And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences.
12And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.
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.