1 Enoch 82
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And now, my son Methuselah, all these things I am recounting to thee and writing down for thee, and I have revealed to thee everything, and given thee books concerning all these: so preserve, my son Methuselah, the books from thy father’s hand, and (see) that thou deliver them to the generations of the world.
2I have given wisdom to thee and to thy children, [And thy children that shall be to thee], That they may give it to their children for generations, This wisdom (namely) that passeth their thought.
3And those who understand it shall not sleep, But shall listen with the ear that they may learn this wisdom, And it shall please those that eat thereof better than good food.
4Blessed are all the righteous, blessed are all those who walk in the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners, in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverses the heaven, entering into and departing from the portals for thirty days with the heads of thousands of the order of the stars, together with the four which are intercalated which divide the four portions of the year, which lead them and enter with them four days.
5Owing to them men shall be at fault and not reckon them in the whole reckoning of the year: yea, men shall be at fault, and not recognize them accurately.
6For they belong to the reckoning of the year and are truly recorded (thereon) for ever, one in the first portal and one in the third, and one in the fourth and one in the sixth, and the year is completed in three hundred and sixty-four days.
7And the account thereof is accurate and the recorded reckoning thereof exact; for the luminaries, and months and festivals, and years and days, has Uriel shown and revealed to me, to whom the Lord of the whole creation of the world hath subjected the host of heaven.
8And he has power over night and day in the heaven to cause the light to give light to men—sun, moon, and stars, and all the powers of the heaven which revolve in their circular chariots.
9And these are the orders of the stars, which set in their places, and in their seasons and festivals and months.
10And these are the names of those who lead them, who watch that they enter at their times, in their orders, in their seasons, in their months, in their periods of dominion, and in their positions.
11Their four leaders who divide the four parts of the year enter first; and after them the twelve leaders of the orders who divide the months; and for the three hundred and sixty (days) there are heads over thousands who divide the days; and for the four intercalary days there are the leaders which sunder the four parts of the year.
12And these heads over thousands are intercalated between leader and leader, each behind a station, but their leaders make the division.
13And these are the names of the leaders who divide the four parts of the year which are ordained: Mîlkî’êl, Hel’emmêlêk, and Mêl’êjal, and Nârêl.
14And the names of those who lead them: Adnâr’êl, and Îjâsûsa’êl, and ’Elômê’êl—these three follow the leaders of the orders, and there is one that follows the three leaders of the orders which follow those leaders of stations that divide the four parts of the year.
15In the beginning of the year Melkejâl rises first and rules, who is named Tam’âinî and sun, and all the days of his dominion whilst he bears rule are ninety-one days.
16And these are the signs of the days which are to be seen on earth in the days of his dominion: sweat, and heat, and calms; and all the trees bear fruit, and leaves are produced on all the trees, and the harvest of wheat, and the rose-flowers, and all the flowers which come forth in the field, but the trees of the winter season become withered.
17And these are the names of the leaders which are under them: Berka’êl, Zêlebs’êl, and another who is added a head of a thousand, called Hîlujâseph: and the days of the dominion of this (leader) are at an end.
18The next leader after him is Hel’emmêlêk, whom one names the shining sun, and all the days of his light are ninety-one days.
19And these are the signs of (his) days on the earth: glowing heat and dryness, and the trees ripen their fruits and produce all their fruits ripe and ready, and the sheep pair and become pregnant, and all the fruits of the earth are gathered in, and everything that is in the fields, and the winepress: these things take place in the days of his dominion.
20These are the names, and the orders, and the leaders of those heads of thousands: Gîdâ’ijal, Kê’êl, and Hê’êl, and the name of the head of a thousand which is added to them, Asfâ’êl: and the days of his dominion are at an end.
The chapter, studied
The Wisdom That Passeth Their Thought
Enoch charges Methuselah to keep and hand down the books of wisdom he has written, promising that those who learn it will find it "better than good food." He restates the 364-day calendar one final time, then names the angelic leaders who divide the year into its four seasonal quarters and lists the crops, weather, and signs marking each ninety-one day season.
Chapter 82 closes the Astronomical Book (72-82) by turning from calculation back to exhortation: wisdom to be treasured, not just a calendar to be followed. The image of wisdom pleasing those "that eat thereof better than good food" belongs to the same wisdom-literature family as Proverbs' own invitation to eat and drink at wisdom's table.
The final section names four leaders over the year's quarters, each ruling ninety-one days, with the earth's own agricultural signs, sweat and blossom in one quarter, harvest and vintage in another, tracking their reigns. The effect folds the practical rhythms of farming life into the same governed order the earlier chapters gave the sun and moon; nothing in creation, from a star's motion to a wheat harvest, is left ungoverned.
A student finishing the Astronomical Book should notice what it has argued for across eleven chapters: a fixed 364-day solar calendar, defended repeatedly and in detail, against a reckoning that "err[s]" and fails to "recognize them accurately." Scripture does not settle this particular Second Temple dispute; the chapter's real theological center carries forward cleanly regardless: that the created order runs by God's fixed decree, not by chance.
Doors into the 66
- Proverbs 9:5 — Wisdom's own invitation, "eat ye of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled," stands beside this chapter's promise that true wisdom outdoes good food.
- Genesis 8:22 — "Seedtime and harvest… shall not cease" is the same confidence in a fixed, governed created order this chapter applies to the year's four seasons.
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 now, my son Methuselah, all these things I am recounting to thee and writing down for thee, and I have revealed to thee everything, and given thee books concerning all these: so preserve, my son Methuselah, the books from thy father’s hand, and (see) that thou deliver them to the generations of the world.
2I have given wisdom to thee and to thy children, [And thy children that shall be to thee], That they may give it to their children for generations, This wisdom (namely) that passeth their thought.
3And those who understand it shall not sleep, But shall listen with the ear that they may learn this wisdom, And it shall please those that eat thereof better than good food.
4Blessed are all the righteous, blessed are all those who walk in the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners, in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverses the heaven, entering into and departing from the portals for thirty days with the heads of thousands of the order of the stars, together with the four which are intercalated which divide the four portions of the year, which lead them and enter with them four days.
5Owing to them men shall be at fault and not reckon them in the whole reckoning of the year: yea, men shall be at fault, and not recognize them accurately.
6For they belong to the reckoning of the year and are truly recorded (thereon) for ever, one in the first portal and one in the third, and one in the fourth and one in the sixth, and the year is completed in three hundred and sixty-four days.
7And the account thereof is accurate and the recorded reckoning thereof exact; for the luminaries, and months and festivals, and years and days, has Uriel shown and revealed to me, to whom the Lord of the whole creation of the world hath subjected the host of heaven.
8And he has power over night and day in the heaven to cause the light to give light to men—sun, moon, and stars, and all the powers of the heaven which revolve in their circular chariots.
9And these are the orders of the stars, which set in their places, and in their seasons and festivals and months.
10And these are the names of those who lead them, who watch that they enter at their times, in their orders, in their seasons, in their months, in their periods of dominion, and in their positions.
11Their four leaders who divide the four parts of the year enter first; and after them the twelve leaders of the orders who divide the months; and for the three hundred and sixty (days) there are heads over thousands who divide the days; and for the four intercalary days there are the leaders which sunder the four parts of the year.
12And these heads over thousands are intercalated between leader and leader, each behind a station, but their leaders make the division.
13And these are the names of the leaders who divide the four parts of the year which are ordained: Mîlkî’êl, Hel’emmêlêk, and Mêl’êjal, and Nârêl.
14And the names of those who lead them: Adnâr’êl, and Îjâsûsa’êl, and ’Elômê’êl—these three follow the leaders of the orders, and there is one that follows the three leaders of the orders which follow those leaders of stations that divide the four parts of the year.
15In the beginning of the year Melkejâl rises first and rules, who is named Tam’âinî and sun, and all the days of his dominion whilst he bears rule are ninety-one days.
16And these are the signs of the days which are to be seen on earth in the days of his dominion: sweat, and heat, and calms; and all the trees bear fruit, and leaves are produced on all the trees, and the harvest of wheat, and the rose-flowers, and all the flowers which come forth in the field, but the trees of the winter season become withered.
17And these are the names of the leaders which are under them: Berka’êl, Zêlebs’êl, and another who is added a head of a thousand, called Hîlujâseph: and the days of the dominion of this (leader) are at an end.
18The next leader after him is Hel’emmêlêk, whom one names the shining sun, and all the days of his light are ninety-one days.
19And these are the signs of (his) days on the earth: glowing heat and dryness, and the trees ripen their fruits and produce all their fruits ripe and ready, and the sheep pair and become pregnant, and all the fruits of the earth are gathered in, and everything that is in the fields, and the winepress: these things take place in the days of his dominion.
20These are the names, and the orders, and the leaders of those heads of thousands: Gîdâ’ijal, Kê’êl, and Hê’êl, and the name of the head of a thousand which is added to them, Asfâ’êl: and the days of his dominion are at an end.
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.