1 Enoch 6
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’
3And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’
4And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’
5Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
6And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
7And these are the names of their leaders: Samîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl.
8These are their chiefs of tens.
The chapter, studied
The Oath the Watchers Swore on Hermon
As humanity multiplies, angels called "the children of the heaven" see the beauty of human women and desire them. Their leader Semjaza, fearing to act alone, proposes a mutual oath so all two hundred will share the guilt together. They swear the oath on Mount Hermon, which the text says is how the mountain got its name, and the chapter closes by listing the names of their twenty leaders.
This chapter opens the story proper, and it is doing something Genesis 6:1-4 does in four verses at high compression: here it is slowed down into a scene, with dialogue, motive, and a named ringleader. Semjaza's fear is telling: "I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin" — the text is explicit that this was understood, even by its own participants, as sin with a penalty attached, not a morally neutral act.
The mutual-oath device (v. 4) is the narrative engine of the whole Watchers section: two hundred bind themselves together specifically so no one can back out and no one bears the guilt alone. Mount Hermon (a real, towering peak on Israel's northern border, later the site of pagan worship in the Gospels' own geography) is given as the location, and the text plays on the Hebrew root of the name to tie it to the oath itself: a folk etymology, not a scientific claim, but a deliberate marker that this is the place where the breach happened.
The list of twenty names in verse 7 is the closest the chapter comes to a roster of the offending party: later chapters (8-9) will return to several of them by name, especially Semjaza and Azazel, to describe exactly what each one taught mankind.
This is the founding scene of the site's Watchers reading of Genesis 6: angelic beings, not merely human dynasties, cross their created boundary and unite with human women, an act the New Testament itself treats as real angelic sin (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4). 1 Enoch is not Scripture, but it preserves the oldest surviving Jewish elaboration of the same event Genesis records in brief.
Doors into the 66
- Genesis 6:1 — This chapter expands the four compressed verses of Genesis 6:1-4: "the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair" — into a full scene with named leaders and a sworn oath.
- Jude 1:6 — Jude's "angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation" describes the same transgression this chapter narrates in detail.
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.
Michael S. Heiser
Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ (2017)
How the Watchers story of these chapters stands behind New Testament theology.
Gary Wayne
The Genesis 6 Conspiracy (2014)
A topical case for the Watchers reading these chapters narrate: giants, bloodlines, and the seed war.
Timothy Alberino
Birthright: The Coming Posthuman Apocalypse and the Usurpation of Adam's Dominion on Planet Earth (2020)
Reads the Watchers rebellion of these chapters into the Bible's larger dominion story.
1And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’
3And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’
4And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’
5Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
6And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
7And these are the names of their leaders: Samîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl.
8These are their chiefs of tens.
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.