1 Enoch 23
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1From thence I went to another place to the west of the ends of the earth.
2And I saw a burning fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night but (ran) regularly.
3And I asked saying: ‘What is this which rests not?’
4Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said unto me: ‘This course of fire which thou hast seen is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.’
The chapter, studied
The Fire That Never Rests
Enoch travels west and sees a fire burning without pause, day or night, running steadily on its course. The angel Raguel tells him this is the fire in the west that pursues the heavenly lights.
This is one of the shortest, least developed stops on the tour, but it fits the larger pattern of the whole journey: each site explains some feature of the cosmos as a moral, governed reality rather than a blind natural process: here, a fire in restless pursuit that "persecutes all the luminaries of heaven."
The chapter functions mainly as a bridge between the judgment sites just visited in chapters 21-22 and the more peaceful, Eden-adjacent geography that follows in chapters 24-32: Enoch is moving from places of punishment toward places of blessing as the tour continues.
Doors into the 66
- Psalms 19:1 — stands beside the instinct to read the sky as morally significant rather than merely mechanical
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.
1From thence I went to another place to the west of the ends of the earth.
2And I saw a burning fire which ran without resting, and paused not from its course day or night but (ran) regularly.
3And I asked saying: ‘What is this which rests not?’
4Then Raguel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered me and said unto me: ‘This course of fire which thou hast seen is the fire in the west which persecutes all the luminaries of heaven.’
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.