1 Enoch 56
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And I saw there the hosts of the angels of punishment going, and they held scourges and chains of iron and bronze.
2And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: ‘To whom are these who hold the scourges going?’
3And he said unto me: ‘To their elect and beloved ones, that they may be cast into the chasm of the abyss of the valley.
4And then that valley shall be filled with their elect and beloved, And the days of their lives shall be at an end, And the days of their leading astray shall not thenceforward be reckoned.
5And in those days the angels shall return And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Medes: They shall stir up the kings, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them, And they shall rouse them from their thrones, That they may break forth as lions from their lairs, And as hungry wolves among their flocks.
6And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones, [And the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor and a highway:]
7But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses. And they shall begin to fight among themselves, And their right hand shall be strong against themselves, And a man shall not know his brother, Nor a son his father or his mother, Till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter, And their punishment be not in vain.
8In those days Sheol shall open its jaws, And they shall be swallowed up therein, And their destruction shall be at an end; Sheol shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.’
The chapter, studied
Brother Against Brother: The Armies from the East
Enoch sees angels of punishment carrying scourges and chains going to cast "their elect and beloved ones", those bound to the fallen powers, into the abyss. A second scene follows: angels stir up the kings of the Parthians and Medes to invade, armies trample the land and then turn on each other until no one can count the dead, and Sheol opens its jaws to swallow the sinners.
The chapter falls into two distinct scenes joined by one theme: a day when leading-astray finally ends. The opening verses echo the Watchers narrative directly, "their elect and beloved ones," "the days of their leading astray shall not thenceforward be reckoned", describing beings bound to fallen powers sealed into the abyss alongside them.
The second scene shifts into eschatological war poetry: named nations invade "as lions from their lairs," and the fighting turns inward: "a man shall not know his brother, nor a son his father or his mother" — until the slaughter is uncountable. This picture of an overwhelming invasion that God stirs up and then turns on itself belongs to the same tradition as the great end-time invasions described elsewhere in Jewish apocalyptic writing.
Sheol "opening its jaws" to devour the sinners "in the presence of the elect" closes the chapter on a note struck throughout the Parables: judgment is witnessed by the righteous, not hidden from them.
The opening verses' "elect and beloved ones... cast into the chasm of the abyss" whose "days of leading astray" are ended continue the judgment begun on Azazel's hosts in chapter 55, the same fallen Watchers of Genesis 6:1-4.
Doors into the 66
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 I saw there the hosts of the angels of punishment going, and they held scourges and chains of iron and bronze.
2And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: ‘To whom are these who hold the scourges going?’
3And he said unto me: ‘To their elect and beloved ones, that they may be cast into the chasm of the abyss of the valley.
4And then that valley shall be filled with their elect and beloved, And the days of their lives shall be at an end, And the days of their leading astray shall not thenceforward be reckoned.
5And in those days the angels shall return And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Medes: They shall stir up the kings, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them, And they shall rouse them from their thrones, That they may break forth as lions from their lairs, And as hungry wolves among their flocks.
6And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones, [And the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor and a highway:]
7But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses. And they shall begin to fight among themselves, And their right hand shall be strong against themselves, And a man shall not know his brother, Nor a son his father or his mother, Till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter, And their punishment be not in vain.
8In those days Sheol shall open its jaws, And they shall be swallowed up therein, And their destruction shall be at an end; Sheol shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.’
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.