1 Enoch 73
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And after this law I saw another law dealing with the smaller luminary, which is named the Moon.
2And her circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and her chariot in which she rides is driven by the wind, and light is given to her in (definite) measure.
3And her rising and setting change every month: and her days are like the days of the sun, and when her light is uniform (i.e. full) it amounts to the seventh part of the light of the sun.
4And thus she rises. And her first phase in the east comes forth on the thirtieth morning: and on that day she becomes visible, and constitutes for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day together with the sun in the portal where the sun rises.
5And the one half of her goes forth by a seventh part, and her whole circumference is empty, without light, with the exception of one-seventh part of it, (and) the fourteenth part of her light.
6And when she receives one-seventh part of the half of her light, her light amounts to one-seventh part and the half thereof.
7And she sets with the sun, and when the sun rises the moon rises with him and receives the half of one part of light, and in that night in the beginning of her morning [in the commencement of the lunar day] the moon sets with the sun, and is invisible that night with the fourteen parts and the half of one of them.
8And she rises on that day with exactly a seventh part, and comes forth and recedes from the rising of the sun, and in her remaining days she becomes bright in the (remaining) thirteen parts.
The chapter, studied
The Moon Measured in Sevenths
A second angelic law follows the sun's: this one governs the smaller light, the moon. Her circumference matches the heaven's own, her chariot rides on the wind, and her light comes to her "in (definite) measure" rather than from herself. She waxes by sevenths, from her first appearance beside the sun's rising portal up to the fullness of her light.
The chapter opens the second half of the Astronomical Book (chs. 72-82), sometimes called the Book of the Luminaries. Where chapter 72 laid down the law of the sun, chapter 73 turns to "another law dealing with the smaller luminary, which is named the Moon" — deliberately subordinate language. The moon does not generate her own light here; she "receives" it "in (definite) measure," rising and setting each month in a fixed sequence the text tracks almost like an astronomer's notebook.
The counting runs by sevenths, one-seventh, half of one-seventh, and onward, producing a running fraction of the moon's lit face for each day of her cycle. This is instruction more than devotion: a reader is meant to reckon the moon's phase from the numbers given, and the chapter's plainness fixes a reliable calendar against which the disorder described later, in chapter 80, can be measured.
A student coming from Genesis will notice the same pairing scripture uses: "the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night" — reworked here into a technical account of exactly how the lesser light is lit. The moon's derivative, timed, measured light quietly echoes the creation account's ranking of the two lights without ever quoting it.
Doors into the 66
- Genesis 1:16 — God made "two great lights," the greater to rule the day and the lesser the night: the ranking this chapter's moon-law works out in technical detail.
- Psalms 104:19 — "He appointed the moon for seasons" states in one line what this chapter spends eight verses measuring.
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.
1And after this law I saw another law dealing with the smaller luminary, which is named the Moon.
2And her circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and her chariot in which she rides is driven by the wind, and light is given to her in (definite) measure.
3And her rising and setting change every month: and her days are like the days of the sun, and when her light is uniform (i.e. full) it amounts to the seventh part of the light of the sun.
4And thus she rises. And her first phase in the east comes forth on the thirtieth morning: and on that day she becomes visible, and constitutes for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day together with the sun in the portal where the sun rises.
5And the one half of her goes forth by a seventh part, and her whole circumference is empty, without light, with the exception of one-seventh part of it, (and) the fourteenth part of her light.
6And when she receives one-seventh part of the half of her light, her light amounts to one-seventh part and the half thereof.
7And she sets with the sun, and when the sun rises the moon rises with him and receives the half of one part of light, and in that night in the beginning of her morning [in the commencement of the lunar day] the moon sets with the sun, and is invisible that night with the fourteen parts and the half of one of them.
8And she rises on that day with exactly a seventh part, and comes forth and recedes from the rising of the sun, and in her remaining days she becomes bright in the (remaining) thirteen parts.
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.