1 Enoch 83
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And now, my son Methuselah, I will show thee all my visions which I have seen, recounting them before thee.
2Two visions I saw before I took a wife, and the one was quite unlike the other: the first when I was learning to write: the second before I took thy mother, (when) I saw a terrible vision.
3And regarding them I prayed to the Lord. I had laid me down in the house of my grandfather Mahalalel, (when) I saw in a vision how the heaven collapsed and was borne off and fell to the earth.
4And when it fell to the earth I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems, and hurled down and sunk in the abyss.
5And thereupon a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up (my voice) to cry aloud, and said: ‘The earth is destroyed.’
6And my grandfather Mahalalel waked me as I lay near him, and said unto me: ‘Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou make such lamentation?’
7And I recounted to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said unto me: ‘A terrible thing hast thou seen, my son, and of grave moment is thy dream-vision as to the secrets of all the sin of the earth: it must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction.
8And now, my son, arise and make petition to the Lord of glory, since thou art a believer, that a remnant may remain on the earth, and that He may not destroy the whole earth.
9My son, from heaven all this will come upon the earth, and upon the earth there will be great destruction.
10After that I arose and prayed and implored and besought, and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, and I will show everything to thee, my son Methuselah.
11And when I had gone forth below and seen the heaven, and the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting in the west, and a few stars, and the whole earth, and everything as He had known it in the beginning, then I blessed the Lord of judgement and extolled Him because He had made the sun to go forth from the windows of the east, and he ascended and rose on the face of the heaven, and set out and kept traversing the path shown unto him.
The chapter, studied
The Earth Swallowed in a Dream
Enoch begins recounting two visions seen before his marriage, starting with a terrifying dream of the heaven collapsing onto the earth, which is then swallowed into a great abyss along with its mountains and trees. His grandfather Mahalalel wakes him and names the dream a true sign that the earth "must sink into the abyss and be destroyed" for the sin upon it, and urges Enoch to pray that a remnant survive. Enoch prays, then rises to see the ordinary world still standing and blesses God for it.
Chapter 83 opens the Book of Dream Visions (83-90), and it begins exactly where a flood account would: total destruction, an abyss swallowing the earth, and a plea that "a remnant may remain." Mahalalel's interpretation names the cause plainly: "the secrets of all the sin of the earth" — tying the coming judgment to human wickedness rather than to blind catastrophe.
The prayer for a remnant to be spared gives this chapter a shape scripture repeats across many judgments: Noah's household preserved through the flood, a remnant preserved through exile, a remnant "according to the election of grace" in Paul. The instinct that judgment on sin should not be total, that God preserves a seed through it, runs through both books even though 1 Enoch never claims scripture's authority.
The chapter's final image: Enoch waking to find the sun still rising "from the windows of the east" and blessing "the Lord of judgement" for it: sets the tone for the visions that follow: even a dream of total destruction ends in ordinary continuance and praise, because the God who judges is also the God who sustains the world.
Doors into the 66
- Isaiah 10:21 — "The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob" — the same preserved-remnant hope Mahalalel urges Enoch to pray for.
- Romans 11:5 — Paul's "remnant according to the election of grace" carries the same instinct into the New Testament: judgment on sin that still spares a seed.
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, I will show thee all my visions which I have seen, recounting them before thee.
2Two visions I saw before I took a wife, and the one was quite unlike the other: the first when I was learning to write: the second before I took thy mother, (when) I saw a terrible vision.
3And regarding them I prayed to the Lord. I had laid me down in the house of my grandfather Mahalalel, (when) I saw in a vision how the heaven collapsed and was borne off and fell to the earth.
4And when it fell to the earth I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems, and hurled down and sunk in the abyss.
5And thereupon a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up (my voice) to cry aloud, and said: ‘The earth is destroyed.’
6And my grandfather Mahalalel waked me as I lay near him, and said unto me: ‘Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou make such lamentation?’
7And I recounted to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said unto me: ‘A terrible thing hast thou seen, my son, and of grave moment is thy dream-vision as to the secrets of all the sin of the earth: it must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction.
8And now, my son, arise and make petition to the Lord of glory, since thou art a believer, that a remnant may remain on the earth, and that He may not destroy the whole earth.
9My son, from heaven all this will come upon the earth, and upon the earth there will be great destruction.
10After that I arose and prayed and implored and besought, and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, and I will show everything to thee, my son Methuselah.
11And when I had gone forth below and seen the heaven, and the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting in the west, and a few stars, and the whole earth, and everything as He had known it in the beginning, then I blessed the Lord of judgement and extolled Him because He had made the sun to go forth from the windows of the east, and he ascended and rose on the face of the heaven, and set out and kept traversing the path shown unto him.
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.