1 Enoch 80
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And in those days the angel Uriel answered and said to me: ‘Behold, I have shown thee everything, Enoch, and I have revealed everything to thee that thou shouldst see this sun and this moon, and the leaders of the stars of the heaven and all those who turn them, their tasks and times and departures.
2And in the days of the sinners the years shall be shortened, And their seed shall be tardy on their lands and fields, And all things on the earth shall alter, And shall not appear in their time: And the rain shall be kept back And the heaven shall withhold (it).
3And in those times the fruits of the earth shall be backward, And shall not grow in their time, And the fruits of the trees shall be withheld in their time.
4And the moon shall alter her order, And not appear at her time.
5[And in those days the sun shall be seen and he shall journey in the evening on the extremity of the great chariot in the west] And shall shine more brightly than accords with the order of light.
6And many chiefs of the stars shall transgress the order (prescribed). And these shall alter their orbits and tasks, And not appear at the seasons prescribed to them.
7And the whole order of the stars shall be concealed from the sinners, And the thoughts of those on the earth shall err concerning them, [And they shall be altered from all their ways], Yea, they shall err and take them to be gods.
8And evil shall be multiplied upon them, And punishment shall come upon them So as to destroy all.’
The chapter, studied
When the Stars Are Mistaken for Gods
Uriel tells Enoch that in the days of sinners the fixed order will break down: years will shorten, harvests will fail, rain will be withheld, and the moon and stars will drift from their appointed places. The disorder will be so great that people on earth will misread the signs entirely and "take them to be gods." The chapter ends warning that evil and punishment will be multiplied because of it.
After nine chapters insisting the heavens run with perfect, unbending precision, chapter 80 turns that precision into a diagnostic: when the sun, moon, and stars start to wander from their stations, it is a sign the earth itself has fallen into sin. The poem's refrain: "shall not appear in their time," "not appear at her time," "not appear at the seasons prescribed" — hammers the same idea from every angle: disorder above tracks disorder below.
The chapter's sharpest line is theological rather than astronomical: when the true order is hidden "from the sinners," "they shall err and take them to be gods." A book that has spent nine chapters teaching exact, governed motion for sun, moon, and stars now uses that very teaching to condemn worshiping them: the luminaries are creatures under command, not powers to be venerated, a concern scripture's own law shares directly.
This warning of heavenly bodies going out of their courses as a sign has a real echo in the Gospels' language of the sun darkening and the stars falling "in those days, after that tribulation" — not a claim of dependence, but a shared expectation that visibly breaking cosmic order is bound up with final judgment.
Doors into the 66
- Deuteronomy 4:19 — Moses warns against being "driven to worship" the sun, moon, and stars: the exact error this chapter says will spread when the sky's order is hidden from sinners.
- Matthew 24:29 — "The stars shall fall from heaven" as an end-time sign stands beside this chapter's picture of the luminaries abandoning their appointed courses.
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 in those days the angel Uriel answered and said to me: ‘Behold, I have shown thee everything, Enoch, and I have revealed everything to thee that thou shouldst see this sun and this moon, and the leaders of the stars of the heaven and all those who turn them, their tasks and times and departures.
2And in the days of the sinners the years shall be shortened, And their seed shall be tardy on their lands and fields, And all things on the earth shall alter, And shall not appear in their time: And the rain shall be kept back And the heaven shall withhold (it).
3And in those times the fruits of the earth shall be backward, And shall not grow in their time, And the fruits of the trees shall be withheld in their time.
4And the moon shall alter her order, And not appear at her time.
5[And in those days the sun shall be seen and he shall journey in the evening on the extremity of the great chariot in the west] And shall shine more brightly than accords with the order of light.
6And many chiefs of the stars shall transgress the order (prescribed). And these shall alter their orbits and tasks, And not appear at the seasons prescribed to them.
7And the whole order of the stars shall be concealed from the sinners, And the thoughts of those on the earth shall err concerning them, [And they shall be altered from all their ways], Yea, they shall err and take them to be gods.
8And evil shall be multiplied upon them, And punishment shall come upon them So as to destroy all.’
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.