1 Enoch 68
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And after that my grandfather Enoch gave me the teaching of all the secrets in the book in the Parables which had been given to him, and he put them together for me in the words of the book of the Parables.
2And on that day Michael answered Raphael and said: ‘The power of the spirit transports and makes me to tremble because of the severity of the judgement of the secrets, the judgement of the angels: who can endure the severe judgement which has been executed, and before which they melt away?’
3And Michael answered again, and said to Raphael: ‘Who is he whose heart is not softened concerning it, and whose reins are not troubled by this word of judgement (that) has gone forth upon them because of those who have thus led them out?’
4And it came to pass when he stood before the Lord of Spirits, Michael said thus to Raphael: ‘I will not take their part under the eye of the Lord; for the Lord of Spirits has been angry with them because they do as if they were the Lord.
5Therefore all that is hidden shall come upon them for ever and ever; for neither angel nor man shall have his portion (in it), but alone they have received their judgement for ever and ever.’
The chapter, studied
Michael and Raphael Tremble at the Judgment
Enoch passes on the full teaching of "the book of the Parables" to Noah. Michael and Raphael then speak to each other about the severity of the judgment falling on the fallen angels, Michael declaring he will not intercede for them because they set themselves up "as if they were the Lord," so that their portion of judgment stands forever, shared by neither angel nor man.
This brief chapter closes the extended Noah section by having Enoch formally hand off "the teaching of all the secrets" to his descendant: a literary device marking the Parables as a transmitted inheritance rather than a private vision that dies with the seer.
The dialogue between Michael and Raphael is unusual for showing even the great archangels shaken by what they witness, "the power of the spirit transports and makes me to tremble", and Michael's explicit refusal to intercede ("I will not take their part under the eye of the Lord") marks a hard boundary: some offenses, in this text's own logic, place their perpetrators permanently beyond angelic advocacy.
The charge against the fallen angels, that "they do as if they were the Lord", identifies usurped divine authority, not merely illicit union with humanity, as the root of their unforgivable guilt.
Michael and Raphael's discussion is the archangels' own verdict on the fallen Watchers' judgment already described across chapters 54-67, sealing it as final and beyond intercession.
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 after that my grandfather Enoch gave me the teaching of all the secrets in the book in the Parables which had been given to him, and he put them together for me in the words of the book of the Parables.
2And on that day Michael answered Raphael and said: ‘The power of the spirit transports and makes me to tremble because of the severity of the judgement of the secrets, the judgement of the angels: who can endure the severe judgement which has been executed, and before which they melt away?’
3And Michael answered again, and said to Raphael: ‘Who is he whose heart is not softened concerning it, and whose reins are not troubled by this word of judgement (that) has gone forth upon them because of those who have thus led them out?’
4And it came to pass when he stood before the Lord of Spirits, Michael said thus to Raphael: ‘I will not take their part under the eye of the Lord; for the Lord of Spirits has been angry with them because they do as if they were the Lord.
5Therefore all that is hidden shall come upon them for ever and ever; for neither angel nor man shall have his portion (in it), but alone they have received their judgement for ever and ever.’
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.