1 Enoch 22
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And thence I went to another place, and he showed me in the west another great and high mountain [and] of hard rock.
2And there was in it four hollow places, deep and wide and very smooth. How smooth are the hollow places and deep and dark to look at.
3Then Raphael answered, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: ‘These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein, yea that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here.
4And these places have been made to receive them till the day of their judgement and till their appointed period [till the period appointed], till the great judgement (comes) upon them.’
5I saw the spirits of the children of men who were dead, and their voice went forth to heaven and made suit.
6Then I asked Raphael the angel who was with me, and I said unto him: ‘This spirit—whose is it, whose voice goeth forth and maketh suit?’
7And he answered me saying: ‘This is the spirit which went forth from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, and he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth, and his seed is annihilated from amongst the seed of men.’
8Then I asked regarding it, and regarding all the hollow places: ’Why is one separated from the other?’
9And he answered me and said unto me: ‘These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made for the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.
10And such has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgement has not been executed on them in their lifetime.
11Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain till the great day of judgement and punishment and torment of those who curse for ever and retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them for ever.
12And such a division has been made for the spirits of those who make their suit, who make disclosures concerning their destruction, when they were slain in the days of the sinners.
13Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and of the transgressors they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgement nor shall they be raised from thence.
14Then I blessed the Lord of glory and said: ‘Blessed be my Lord, the Lord of righteousness, who ruleth for ever.’
The chapter, studied
Four Rooms in the Land of the Dead
Enoch is shown a mountain with four smooth, hollow chambers where the spirits of the dead wait for judgment. Raphael explains that the chambers separate the righteous, who have a bright spring of water, from sinners not yet judged, from those crying out for justice, and from sinners already complete in wickedness. Among the voices Enoch hears is the spirit of Abel, still crying out against Cain.
This is one of the most theologically loaded chapters in the Watchers section: an intermediate state for the dead, sorted by moral category, waiting on a future "day of judgement" rather than receiving final reward or punishment at once. The righteous compartment has "the bright spring of water" — comfort now, vindication later; the wicked "who were complete in transgression" are told plainly that their spirits "shall not be slain... nor shall they be raised from thence," a preview of unequal fates that the New Testament's resurrection language will later sharpen.
The spirit of Abel, "whose voice goeth forth and maketh suit" against Cain until "his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth," is the chapter's most direct point of contact with Genesis. It expands Genesis 4's cry of Abel's blood into an ongoing plea for justice: the same picture the book of Hebrews uses when it says Abel's blood "yet speaketh," and the martyrs' cry under the altar in Revelation reads like the same scene carried into apostolic imagery.
The walled, separate divisions for different classes of the dead, one comforted and one in torment ahead of a final judgment, are close kin to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Scripture never cites this chapter, and Luke's parable stands on its own authority; the resemblance is worth noticing as shared background to Second Temple Jewish thought about Sheol, not a claim that Jesus was drawing on this book.
Doors into the 66
- Genesis 4:10 — the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground: the scene Abel's cry here expands
- Hebrews 11:4 — echoes Abel, 'being dead yet speaketh'
- Revelation 6:9 — stands beside the souls under the altar crying 'how long, O Lord'
- Luke 16:19 — stands beside the rich man and Lazarus and its fixed gulf between the dead
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 thence I went to another place, and he showed me in the west another great and high mountain [and] of hard rock.
2And there was in it four hollow places, deep and wide and very smooth. How smooth are the hollow places and deep and dark to look at.
3Then Raphael answered, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: ‘These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein, yea that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here.
4And these places have been made to receive them till the day of their judgement and till their appointed period [till the period appointed], till the great judgement (comes) upon them.’
5I saw the spirits of the children of men who were dead, and their voice went forth to heaven and made suit.
6Then I asked Raphael the angel who was with me, and I said unto him: ‘This spirit—whose is it, whose voice goeth forth and maketh suit?’
7And he answered me saying: ‘This is the spirit which went forth from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, and he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth, and his seed is annihilated from amongst the seed of men.’
8Then I asked regarding it, and regarding all the hollow places: ’Why is one separated from the other?’
9And he answered me and said unto me: ‘These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made for the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.
10And such has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgement has not been executed on them in their lifetime.
11Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain till the great day of judgement and punishment and torment of those who curse for ever and retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them for ever.
12And such a division has been made for the spirits of those who make their suit, who make disclosures concerning their destruction, when they were slain in the days of the sinners.
13Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and of the transgressors they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgement nor shall they be raised from thence.
14Then I blessed the Lord of glory and said: ‘Blessed be my Lord, the Lord of righteousness, who ruleth 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.