1 Enoch 83:4
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
And 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.
This verse’s 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.
- 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.