1 Enoch 21
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And I proceeded to where things were chaotic.
2And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible.
3And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire.
4Then I said: ‘For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?’
5Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: ‘Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth?
6These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.’
7And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture.
8Then I said: ‘How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!’
9Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: ‘Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?’ And I answered: ‘Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.’
10And he said unto me: ‘This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.’
The chapter, studied
The Prison Built for Stars
Enoch comes to a chaotic place and sees seven stars bound together like burning mountains. Uriel explains they are stars that transgressed God's commandment and are bound for ten thousand years, the term set by their sin. Enoch is then shown a worse place, a fiery abyss with columns of descending fire, which Uriel names as the prison where the fallen angels will be shut up forever.
The "seven stars... bound together" reuses imagery already at work earlier in the book, where stars stand for angels, and Uriel's answer keeps the same pattern set in chapter 19: transgression, binding, a fixed but future term: "bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated."
The second site is starker and, unlike the star-prison, carries no term: "this place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever." The chapter draws a line between disciplinary binding with an end and a final prison without one: the same distinction the New Testament witnesses draw when they describe fallen angels already "in chains" awaiting a judgment still ahead of them.
The fire-and-chains imagery here is this book's own picture of what Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 each compress into a single verse: the site's Watchers reading holds that Genesis 6's rebellious sons of God are already bound in judgment, awaiting the great day.
Doors into the 66
- Jude 1:6 — echoes angels reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day
- 2 Peter 2:4 — echoes angels cast down to hell and delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment
- Revelation 20:1 — stands beside the binding of the dragon in the abyss for a fixed term
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.
1And I proceeded to where things were chaotic.
2And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible.
3And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire.
4Then I said: ‘For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?’
5Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: ‘Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth?
6These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.’
7And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture.
8Then I said: ‘How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!’
9Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: ‘Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?’ And I answered: ‘Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.’
10And he said unto me: ‘This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.’
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.