1 Enoch 5
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1Observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed and know with regard to all His works, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so.
2And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and their tasks change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done.
3And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and change not their tasks from His commandments.
4But ye—ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord, But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words With your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace.
5Therefore shall ye execrate your days, And the years of your life shall perish, And the years of your destruction shall be multiplied in eternal execration, And ye shall find no mercy.
6In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous, And by you shall all who curse, curse, And all the sinners and godless shall imprecate by you, And all the . . . shall rejoice, And there shall be forgiveness of sins, f. And every mercy and peace and forbearance: g. There shall be salvation unto them, a goodly light. i. And for all of you sinners there shall be no salvation, j. But on you all shall abide a curse.
7And for you the godless there shall be a curse. But for the elect there shall be light and joy and peace, And they shall inherit the earth.
8And then there shall be bestowed upon the elect wisdom, And they shall all live and never again sin, Either through ungodliness or through pride: But they who are wise shall be humble.
9And they shall not again transgress, Nor shall they sin all the days of their life, Nor shall they die of (the divine) anger or wrath, But they shall complete the number of the days of their life. And their lives shall be increased in peace, And the years of their joy shall be multiplied, In eternal gladness and peace, All the days of their life.
The chapter, studied
"Ye Have Not Been Steadfast" — Nature's Verdict on the Godless
Enoch finishes the nature parable by pointing to trees, seas, and rivers that faithfully complete their tasks year after year, then turns the comparison directly on sinners: unlike creation, they have not kept God's commandments. He pronounces a coming curse on the godless and a coming inheritance of light, peace, and long life for the elect.
The chapter's structure is a single argument from lesser to greater: if trees "cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit" on schedule, and the sea and rivers "change not their tasks from His commandments," then human beings, the one part of creation given a will, have less excuse, not more, for breaking faith. Verse 4 turns the whole nature sequence (chapters 2-5) into an indictment: "ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord... with your impure mouths against His greatness."
The sentence that follows is severe and repetitive by design: "execrate," "perish," "eternal execration," "no mercy" stacked on each other: the kind of covenant-curse language a reader of Deuteronomy will recognize instantly. It is answered, verse for verse, by an equally stacked blessing for "the elect": light, joy, peace, wisdom, and inheritance of the earth (vv. 7-9), closing with a promise that echoes far beyond this book: a humanity that will "never again sin," living out its full life in peace.
This is the last chapter before the book's central story begins. Read together, chapters 1-5 function as the overture: a theophany of judgment, then a case built from creation's obedience, aimed squarely at human unfaithfulness: before chapter 6 names the specific unfaithfulness the rest of the Book of the Watchers will describe.
Doors into the 66
- Matthew 5:5 — "They shall inherit the earth" for the elect in verse 7 stands beside the same promise given to the meek in the Beatitudes.
- Deuteronomy 28:15 — The stacked curse language in verses 4-6 reads in the same covenant-curse mode as Deuteronomy's curses on covenant-breakers.
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.
1Observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed and know with regard to all His works, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so.
2And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and their tasks change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done.
3And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and change not their tasks from His commandments.
4But ye—ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord, But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words With your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace.
5Therefore shall ye execrate your days, And the years of your life shall perish, And the years of your destruction shall be multiplied in eternal execration, And ye shall find no mercy.
6In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous, And by you shall all who curse, curse, And all the sinners and godless shall imprecate by you, And all the . . . shall rejoice, And there shall be forgiveness of sins, f. And every mercy and peace and forbearance: g. There shall be salvation unto them, a goodly light. i. And for all of you sinners there shall be no salvation, j. But on you all shall abide a curse.
7And for you the godless there shall be a curse. But for the elect there shall be light and joy and peace, And they shall inherit the earth.
8And then there shall be bestowed upon the elect wisdom, And they shall all live and never again sin, Either through ungodliness or through pride: But they who are wise shall be humble.
9And they shall not again transgress, Nor shall they sin all the days of their life, Nor shall they die of (the divine) anger or wrath, But they shall complete the number of the days of their life. And their lives shall be increased in peace, And the years of their joy shall be multiplied, In eternal gladness and peace, All the days of their life.
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.