1 Enoch 52
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And after those days in that place where I had seen all the visions of that which is hidden—for I had been carried off in a whirlwind and they had borne me towards the west—
2There mine eyes saw all the secret things of heaven that shall be, a mountain of iron, and a mountain of copper, and a mountain of silver, and a mountain of gold, and a mountain of soft metal, and a mountain of lead.
3And I asked the angel who went with me, saying, ‘What things are these which I have seen in secret?’
4And he said unto me: ‘All these things which thou hast seen shall serve the dominion of His Anointed that he may be potent and mighty on the earth.’
5And that angel of peace answered, saying unto me: ‘Wait a little, and there shall be revealed unto thee all the secret things which surround the Lord of Spirits.
6And these mountains which thine eyes have seen, The mountain of iron, and the mountain of copper, and the mountain of silver, And the mountain of gold, and the mountain of soft metal, and the mountain of lead, All these shall be in the presence of the Elect One As wax before the fire, And like the water which streams down from above [upon those mountains], And they shall become powerless before his feet.
7And it shall come to pass in those days that none shall be saved, Either by gold or by silver, And none be able to escape.
8And there shall be no iron for war, Nor shall one clothe oneself with a breastplate. Bronze shall be of no service, And tin [shall be of no service and] shall not be esteemed, And lead shall not be desired.
9And all these things shall be [denied and] destroyed from the surface of the earth, When the Elect One shall appear before the face of the Lord of Spirits.’
The chapter, studied
Mountains of Metal Melt Like Wax Before the Elect One
Carried westward in a vision, Enoch sees six mountains, of iron, copper, silver, gold, soft metal, and lead. His guide explains they represent worldly power that will "serve the dominion of His Anointed" and then melt "as wax before the fire" in the Elect One's presence. On that day, the chapter says, no one will be saved by gold, silver, or weapons of war, the whole apparatus of earthly might becomes useless.
The metal-mountain vision recalls Daniel's statue of gold, silver, bronze, and iron representing successive kingdoms, though the two visions are not doing quite the same work: Daniel's metals stand for a sequence of empires broken by a single stone, while these six mountains together represent the material basis of worldly power in general, melting all at once before the Elect One.
The chapter's insistence that "there shall be no iron for war" and that "none shall be saved, either by gold or by silver" strips away every ordinary source of security a reader might trust in, wealth, weaponry, defense, leaving only the Elect One's presence as what actually matters on that day.
Doors into the 66
- Micah 1:4 — "As wax before the fire" is a near-exact echo of Micah's picture of the mountains melting like wax at the LORD's coming.
- Daniel 2:35 — The mountains of iron, silver, gold, and other metals stand beside Daniel's statue of successive kingdoms broken and blown away like chaff.
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. II — The Parables of Enoch (2020)
The reader's commentary continued into the Son of Man visions of these chapters.
1And after those days in that place where I had seen all the visions of that which is hidden—for I had been carried off in a whirlwind and they had borne me towards the west—
2There mine eyes saw all the secret things of heaven that shall be, a mountain of iron, and a mountain of copper, and a mountain of silver, and a mountain of gold, and a mountain of soft metal, and a mountain of lead.
3And I asked the angel who went with me, saying, ‘What things are these which I have seen in secret?’
4And he said unto me: ‘All these things which thou hast seen shall serve the dominion of His Anointed that he may be potent and mighty on the earth.’
5And that angel of peace answered, saying unto me: ‘Wait a little, and there shall be revealed unto thee all the secret things which surround the Lord of Spirits.
6And these mountains which thine eyes have seen, The mountain of iron, and the mountain of copper, and the mountain of silver, And the mountain of gold, and the mountain of soft metal, and the mountain of lead, All these shall be in the presence of the Elect One As wax before the fire, And like the water which streams down from above [upon those mountains], And they shall become powerless before his feet.
7And it shall come to pass in those days that none shall be saved, Either by gold or by silver, And none be able to escape.
8And there shall be no iron for war, Nor shall one clothe oneself with a breastplate. Bronze shall be of no service, And tin [shall be of no service and] shall not be esteemed, And lead shall not be desired.
9And all these things shall be [denied and] destroyed from the surface of the earth, When the Elect One shall appear before the face of the Lord of Spirits.’
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.