1 Enoch 75
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And the leaders of the heads of the thousands, who are placed over the whole creation and over all the stars, have also to do with the four intercalary days, being inseparable from their office, according to the reckoning of the year, and these render service on the four days which are not reckoned in the reckoning of the year.
2And owing to them men go wrong therein, for those luminaries truly render service on the world-stations, one in the first portal, one in the third portal of the heaven, one in the fourth portal, and one in the sixth portal, and the exactness of the year is accomplished through its separate three hundred and sixty-four stations.
3For the signs and the times and the years and the days the angel Uriel showed to me, whom the Lord of glory hath set for ever over all the luminaries of the heaven, in the heaven and in the world, that they should rule on the face of the heaven and be seen on the earth, and be leaders for the day and the night, i.e. the sun, moon, and stars, and all the ministering creatures which make their revolution in all the chariots of the heaven.
4In like manner twelve doors Uriel showed me, open in the circumference of the sun’s chariot in the heaven, through which the rays of the sun break forth: and from them is warmth diffused over the earth, when they are opened at their appointed seasons.
5[And for the winds and the spirit of the dew when they are opened, standing open in the heavens at the ends.]
6As for the twelve portals in the heaven, at the ends of the earth, out of which go forth the sun, moon, and stars, and all the works of heaven in the east and in the west,
7There are many windows open to the left and right of them, and one window at its (appointed) season produces warmth, corresponding (as these do) to those doors from which the stars come forth according as He has commanded them, and wherein they set corresponding to their number.
8And I saw chariots in the heaven, running in the world, above those portals in which revolve the stars that never set.
9And one is larger than all the rest, and it is that that makes its course through the entire world.
The chapter, studied
The Four Days No One Counts
The leaders set over the stars also oversee four intercalary days that fall outside the ordinary year-count, and Enoch says most people go wrong here because they miss them. Uriel is named as the angel the Lord of glory has permanently placed over all the heaven's luminaries. Uriel then shows Enoch the sun's twelve gates and the many side-windows through which warmth and the stars pass.
Chapter 75 explains the mechanism behind chapter 74's 364-day claim: four extra "world-station" days, tied to angelic leaders, keep the count exact, and the text says plainly that ordinary reckoning "go[es] wrong" by leaving them out. This is the book defending its calendar against a rival one, not merely describing the sky.
The twelve portals and their windows give the astronomy an architecture: gates the sun's rays "break forth" through, positioned around the horizon, each doing its work "at their appointed seasons." Nothing moves by chance; everything happens "as He has commanded them."
The title "Lord of glory," used here of the one who set Uriel over the luminaries, is worth a student's notice: the same title is later applied to Christ in the New Testament: not a direct link, but a reminder that Second Temple writers already reached for exalted divine language the apostles would hand to Jesus.
Doors into the 66
- 1 Corinthians 2:8 — Paul calls Jesus "the Lord of glory" — the identical title this chapter uses for the God who set Uriel over the heavens.
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 the leaders of the heads of the thousands, who are placed over the whole creation and over all the stars, have also to do with the four intercalary days, being inseparable from their office, according to the reckoning of the year, and these render service on the four days which are not reckoned in the reckoning of the year.
2And owing to them men go wrong therein, for those luminaries truly render service on the world-stations, one in the first portal, one in the third portal of the heaven, one in the fourth portal, and one in the sixth portal, and the exactness of the year is accomplished through its separate three hundred and sixty-four stations.
3For the signs and the times and the years and the days the angel Uriel showed to me, whom the Lord of glory hath set for ever over all the luminaries of the heaven, in the heaven and in the world, that they should rule on the face of the heaven and be seen on the earth, and be leaders for the day and the night, i.e. the sun, moon, and stars, and all the ministering creatures which make their revolution in all the chariots of the heaven.
4In like manner twelve doors Uriel showed me, open in the circumference of the sun’s chariot in the heaven, through which the rays of the sun break forth: and from them is warmth diffused over the earth, when they are opened at their appointed seasons.
5[And for the winds and the spirit of the dew when they are opened, standing open in the heavens at the ends.]
6As for the twelve portals in the heaven, at the ends of the earth, out of which go forth the sun, moon, and stars, and all the works of heaven in the east and in the west,
7There are many windows open to the left and right of them, and one window at its (appointed) season produces warmth, corresponding (as these do) to those doors from which the stars come forth according as He has commanded them, and wherein they set corresponding to their number.
8And I saw chariots in the heaven, running in the world, above those portals in which revolve the stars that never set.
9And one is larger than all the rest, and it is that that makes its course through the entire world.
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.