1 Enoch 81
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And he said unto me: ‘Observe, Enoch, these heavenly tablets, And read what is written thereon, And mark every individual fact.’
2And I observed the heavenly tablets, and read everything which was written (thereon) and understood everything, and read the book of all the deeds of mankind, and of all the children of flesh that shall be upon the earth to the remotest generations.
3And forthwith I blessed the great Lord the King of glory for ever, in that He has made all the works of the world, And I extolled the Lord because of His patience, And blessed Him because of the children of men.
4And after that I said: ‘Blessed is the man who dies in righteousness and goodness, Concerning whom there is no book of unrighteousness written, And against whom no day of judgement shall be found.’
5And those seven holy ones brought me and placed me on the earth before the door of my house, and said to me: ‘Declare everything to thy son Methuselah, and show to all thy children that no flesh is righteous in the sight of the Lord, for He is their Creator.
6One year we will leave thee with thy son, till thou givest thy (last) commands, that thou mayst teach thy children and record (it) for them, and testify to all thy children; and in the second year they shall take thee from their midst.
7Let thy heart be strong, For the good shall announce righteousness to the good; The righteous with the righteous shall rejoice, And shall offer congratulation to one another.
8But the sinners shall die with the sinners, And the apostate go down with the apostate.
9And those who practise righteousness shall die on account of the deeds of men, And be taken away on account of the doings of the godless.’
10And in those days they ceased to speak to me, and I came to my people, blessing the Lord of the world.
The chapter, studied
The Book With No Entry Against Him
Uriel shows Enoch the heavenly tablets recording the deeds of every person who will ever live, and Enoch reads them and blesses God for His patience toward mankind. He pronounces a blessing on "the man who dies in righteousness and goodness," against whom no book of unrighteousness is written. Seven holy ones return Enoch to earth for one final year with Methuselah before he is "taken from their midst."
The heavenly tablets give concrete shape to an idea scripture itself uses sparingly but pointedly: a record kept in heaven of what each person has done. Enoch's blessing on the one "concerning whom there is no book of unrighteousness written" anticipates the same picture of ledgers opened in judgment that reappears at the close of Revelation.
The line the seven holy ones give Enoch to pass on: "no flesh is righteous in the sight of the Lord, for He is their Creator" — is a striking admission inside a book that otherwise praises the righteous freely; it keeps even Enoch's own uprightness from standing on its own, tying all human righteousness back to the Creator's verdict rather than to human merit.
The chapter's closing arrangement: one more year with his son, then removal "from their midst" — is this book's own account of what Genesis states in a single verse. The extra-biblical text is filling out a picture Genesis leaves brief, and a student should hold the two at their proper distance: Genesis as the fixed record, this chapter as devotional expansion around it.
Doors into the 66
- Genesis 5:24 — "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" is the single verse this chapter's departure scene expands devotionally.
- Hebrews 11:5 — "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death" — the New Testament's own citation of the Genesis account this chapter builds around.
- Revelation 20:12 — "The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books" — the same picture of heavenly record-books opened at judgment that Enoch reads here.
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 he said unto me: ‘Observe, Enoch, these heavenly tablets, And read what is written thereon, And mark every individual fact.’
2And I observed the heavenly tablets, and read everything which was written (thereon) and understood everything, and read the book of all the deeds of mankind, and of all the children of flesh that shall be upon the earth to the remotest generations.
3And forthwith I blessed the great Lord the King of glory for ever, in that He has made all the works of the world, And I extolled the Lord because of His patience, And blessed Him because of the children of men.
4And after that I said: ‘Blessed is the man who dies in righteousness and goodness, Concerning whom there is no book of unrighteousness written, And against whom no day of judgement shall be found.’
5And those seven holy ones brought me and placed me on the earth before the door of my house, and said to me: ‘Declare everything to thy son Methuselah, and show to all thy children that no flesh is righteous in the sight of the Lord, for He is their Creator.
6One year we will leave thee with thy son, till thou givest thy (last) commands, that thou mayst teach thy children and record (it) for them, and testify to all thy children; and in the second year they shall take thee from their midst.
7Let thy heart be strong, For the good shall announce righteousness to the good; The righteous with the righteous shall rejoice, And shall offer congratulation to one another.
8But the sinners shall die with the sinners, And the apostate go down with the apostate.
9And those who practise righteousness shall die on account of the deeds of men, And be taken away on account of the doings of the godless.’
10And in those days they ceased to speak to me, and I came to my people, blessing the Lord of the 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.