1 Enoch 62
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, and said: ‘Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ye are able to recognize the Elect One.’
2And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of His glory, And the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him, And the word of his mouth slays all the sinners, And all the unrighteous are destroyed from before his face.
3And there shall stand up in that day all the kings and the mighty, And the exalted and those who hold the earth, And they shall see and recognize How he sits on the throne of his glory, And righteousness is judged before him, And no lying word is spoken before him.
4Then shall pain come upon them as on a woman in travail, [And she has pain in bringing forth] When her child enters the mouth of the womb, And she has pain in bringing forth.
5And one portion of them shall look on the other, And they shall be terrified, And they shall be downcast of countenance, And pain shall seize them, When they see that Son of Man Sitting on the throne of his glory.
6And the kings and the mighty and all who possess the earth shall bless and glorify and extol him who rules over all, who was hidden.
7For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, And the Most High preserved him in the presence of His might, And revealed him to the elect.
8And the congregation of the elect and holy shall be sown. And all the elect shall stand before him on that day.
9And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth Shall fall down before him on their faces, And worship and set their hope upon that Son of Man, And petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands.
10Nevertheless that Lord of Spirits will so press them That they shall hastily go forth from His presence, And their faces shall be filled with shame, And the darkness grow deeper on their faces.
11And He will deliver them to the angels for punishment, To execute vengeance on them because they have oppressed His children and His elect
12And they shall be a spectacle for the righteous and for His elect: They shall rejoice over them, Because the wrath of the Lord of Spirits resteth upon them, And His sword is drunk with their blood.
13And the righteous and elect shall be saved on that day, And they shall never thenceforward see the face of the sinners and unrighteous.
14And the Lord of Spirits will abide over them, And with that Son of Man shall they eat And lie down and rise up for ever and ever.
15And the righteous and elect shall have risen from the earth, And ceased to be of downcast countenance. And they shall have been clothed with garments of glory,
16And these shall be the garments of life from the Lord of Spirits: And your garments shall not grow old, Nor your glory pass away before the Lord of Spirits.
The chapter, studied
Kings Fall Down Before That Son of Man
The Lord commands the kings and mighty of the earth to look and recognize the Elect One, seated on the throne of glory with the spirit of righteousness upon him. Seeing "that Son of Man" for the first time in their own presence, the kings are seized with pain "as a woman in travail," terrified because the one hidden since the beginning has now been revealed. They fall on their faces to worship and beg for mercy, but are driven from his presence into judgment, while the righteous and elect are saved to eat and dwell with that Son of Man forever, clothed in "garments of life."
This is the theological high point of the entire Book of Parables. The title "that Son of Man" appears here fused directly with "the Elect One," seated on "the throne of his glory" with the power to slay sinners "by the word of his mouth" and to be worshiped by the very kings who once ruled the earth. Chapter 46 first introduced this figure beside the Head of Days; this chapter puts him alone on the throne, the sole object of both terror and worship.
The chapter states plainly that "from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, and the Most High preserved him in the presence of His might, and revealed him to the elect", a claim of pre-existence and concealment matched only by chapter 48's "named before the sun and the signs were created." A fair note for the reader: the Book of Parables has no copy at Qumran and its date remains genuinely debated among scholars, so how this figure relates to Daniel 7's "one like a son of man", direct development, shared tradition, or independent parallel, is not settled. What can be said plainly is that Daniel's throne scene and this chapter's throne scene stand in the same visionary stream, and the Gospels' own repeated language of the Son of Man coming in glory to judge echoes that stream, without this text being treated as its source.
The kings' worship here is worship refused any lasting mercy: they "fall down before him on their faces" and "petition him and supplicate for mercy," yet are driven out in shame. The righteous, by contrast, receive the opposite outcome from the same throne: to "eat" and "lie down and rise up for ever and ever" with that Son of Man, clothed in garments that "shall not grow old."
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 thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, and said: ‘Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ye are able to recognize the Elect One.’
2And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of His glory, And the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him, And the word of his mouth slays all the sinners, And all the unrighteous are destroyed from before his face.
3And there shall stand up in that day all the kings and the mighty, And the exalted and those who hold the earth, And they shall see and recognize How he sits on the throne of his glory, And righteousness is judged before him, And no lying word is spoken before him.
4Then shall pain come upon them as on a woman in travail, [And she has pain in bringing forth] When her child enters the mouth of the womb, And she has pain in bringing forth.
5And one portion of them shall look on the other, And they shall be terrified, And they shall be downcast of countenance, And pain shall seize them, When they see that Son of Man Sitting on the throne of his glory.
6And the kings and the mighty and all who possess the earth shall bless and glorify and extol him who rules over all, who was hidden.
7For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, And the Most High preserved him in the presence of His might, And revealed him to the elect.
8And the congregation of the elect and holy shall be sown. And all the elect shall stand before him on that day.
9And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth Shall fall down before him on their faces, And worship and set their hope upon that Son of Man, And petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands.
10Nevertheless that Lord of Spirits will so press them That they shall hastily go forth from His presence, And their faces shall be filled with shame, And the darkness grow deeper on their faces.
11And He will deliver them to the angels for punishment, To execute vengeance on them because they have oppressed His children and His elect
12And they shall be a spectacle for the righteous and for His elect: They shall rejoice over them, Because the wrath of the Lord of Spirits resteth upon them, And His sword is drunk with their blood.
13And the righteous and elect shall be saved on that day, And they shall never thenceforward see the face of the sinners and unrighteous.
14And the Lord of Spirits will abide over them, And with that Son of Man shall they eat And lie down and rise up for ever and ever.
15And the righteous and elect shall have risen from the earth, And ceased to be of downcast countenance. And they shall have been clothed with garments of glory,
16And these shall be the garments of life from the Lord of Spirits: And your garments shall not grow old, Nor your glory pass away before 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.