1 Enoch 27
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1Then said I: ‘For what object is this blessed land, which is entirely filled with trees, and this accursed valley between?’
2Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered and said: ‘This accursed valley is for those who are accursed for ever: Here shall all the accursed be gathered together who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words and of His glory speak hard things. Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be their place of judgement.
3In the last days there shall be upon them the spectacle of righteous judgement in the presence of the righteous for ever: here shall the merciful bless the Lord of glory, the Eternal King.
4In the days of judgement over the former, they shall bless Him for the mercy in accordance with which He has assigned them (their lot).’
5Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and set forth His glory and lauded Him gloriously.
The chapter, studied
The Valley Kept for Cursing
Enoch asks about the accursed, tree-less valley beside the blessed land and learns from Uriel that it is the gathering place and judgment site for those who blaspheme the Lord with their lips. In the last days the righteous will watch that judgment and bless God for his mercy toward them, and Enoch answers with praise of his own.
The pairing of a blessed, fruitful mountain with an adjoining cursed and barren valley, introduced in chapter 26 and explained here, gives 1 Enoch's geography of judgment a visible, spatial form: mercy and wrath sit side by side, and the righteous are explicitly said to watch the judgment "in the presence of" the condemned, not from a distance.
"This accursed valley is for those who are accursed for ever... who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words and of His glory speak hard things" reads as a precursor to how the Gospels use the Valley of Hinnom, a real valley outside Jerusalem already tied to idolatry in the Old Testament, as the image for final judgment: the fire that does not go out.
The chapter's last line, that the righteous will "bless Him for the mercy in accordance with which He has assigned them," keeps the scene from becoming merely a threat: the point is gratitude that the righteous were spared, the same instinct Isaiah's closing vision voices when it pictures the redeemed looking on those who transgressed.
Doors into the 66
- Jeremiah 7:32 — stands beside the valley of the son of Hinnom renamed the valley of slaughter
- Mark 9:44 — echoes the fire that is not quenched
- Isaiah 66:24 — stands beside the righteous looking on those who transgressed against the Lord
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.
1Then said I: ‘For what object is this blessed land, which is entirely filled with trees, and this accursed valley between?’
2Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered and said: ‘This accursed valley is for those who are accursed for ever: Here shall all the accursed be gathered together who utter with their lips against the Lord unseemly words and of His glory speak hard things. Here shall they be gathered together, and here shall be their place of judgement.
3In the last days there shall be upon them the spectacle of righteous judgement in the presence of the righteous for ever: here shall the merciful bless the Lord of glory, the Eternal King.
4In the days of judgement over the former, they shall bless Him for the mercy in accordance with which He has assigned them (their lot).’
5Then I blessed the Lord of Glory and set forth His glory and lauded Him gloriously.
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.