1 Enoch 98
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And now I swear unto you, to the wise and to the foolish, For ye shall have manifold experiences on the earth.
2For ye men shall put on more adornments than a woman, And coloured garments more than a virgin: In royalty and in grandeur and in power, And in silver and in gold and in purple, And in splendour and in food they shall be poured out as water.
3Therefore they shall be wanting in doctrine and wisdom, And they shall perish thereby together with their possessions; And with all their glory and their splendour, And in shame and in slaughter and in great destitution, Their spirits shall be cast into the furnace of fire.
4I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, as a mountain has not become a slave, And a hill does not become the handmaid of a woman, Even so sin has not been sent upon the earth, But man of himself has created it, And under a great curse shall they fall who commit it.
5And barrenness has not been given to the woman, But on account of the deeds of her own hands she dies without children.
6I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, by the Holy Great One, That all your evil deeds are revealed in the heavens, And that none of your deeds of oppression are covered and hidden.
7And do not think in your spirit nor say in your heart that ye do not know and that ye do not see that every sin is every day recorded in heaven in the presence of the Most High.
8From henceforth ye know that all your oppression wherewith ye oppress is written down every day till the day of your judgement.
9Woe to you, ye fools, for through your folly shall ye perish: and ye transgress against the wise, and so good hap shall not be your portion.
10And now, know ye that ye are prepared for the day of destruction: wherefore do not hope to live, ye sinners, but ye shall depart and die; for ye know no ransom; for ye are prepared for the day of the great judgement, for the day of tribulation and great shame for your spirits.
11Woe to you, ye obstinate of heart, who work wickedness and eat blood: Whence have ye good things to eat and to drink and to be filled? From all the good things which the Lord the Most High has placed in abundance on the earth; therefore ye shall have no peace.
12Woe to you who love the deeds of unrighteousness: wherefore do ye hope for good hap unto yourselves? know that ye shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous, and they shall cut off your necks and slay you, and have no mercy upon you.
13Woe to you who rejoice in the tribulation of the righteous; for no grave shall be dug for you.
14Woe to you who set at nought the words of the righteous; for ye shall have no hope of life.
15Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write down their lies that men may hear them and act godlessly towards (their) neighbour.
16Therefore they shall have no peace but die a sudden death.
The chapter, studied
Nothing Is Hidden: Every Sin Is Written Down
Enoch swears an oath to wise and foolish alike that hard experience is coming for everyone. He condemns men for dressing in finery beyond what even a woman would wear, insists that sin is something people create for themselves rather than something forced on them, and warns that every sin is written down and seen by God every day, whether the sinner believes it or not.
v.4 states a small but important piece of theology: "man of himself has created" sin: it "has not been sent upon the earth" the way a curse might simply fall on someone from outside. Even inside a book deeply concerned with cosmic evil, moral responsibility is placed squarely on the human will.
The oath-form itself: "I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, by the Holy Great One," repeated across the chapter: gives the warnings unusual weight. Enoch is not merely predicting; he puts his own witness on oath that "none of your deeds of oppression are covered and hidden" (v.6).
The picture of final punishment is stark and physical: "their spirits shall be cast into the furnace of fire" (v.3). That is close enough to the Gospels' own furnace language to name honestly as an echo, both drawing on a shared picture of fiery judgment that runs back through Daniel and the prophets.
Doors into the 66
- Matthew 13:42 — "cast into the furnace of fire" echoes Jesus' own description of the end of the age, the wicked "cast...into a furnace of fire".
- Malachi 3:16 — "every sin is every day recorded in heaven" stands beside "a book of remembrance was written before him".
- Galatians 6:7 — "man of himself has created" his own sin stands beside "be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap".
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 I swear unto you, to the wise and to the foolish, For ye shall have manifold experiences on the earth.
2For ye men shall put on more adornments than a woman, And coloured garments more than a virgin: In royalty and in grandeur and in power, And in silver and in gold and in purple, And in splendour and in food they shall be poured out as water.
3Therefore they shall be wanting in doctrine and wisdom, And they shall perish thereby together with their possessions; And with all their glory and their splendour, And in shame and in slaughter and in great destitution, Their spirits shall be cast into the furnace of fire.
4I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, as a mountain has not become a slave, And a hill does not become the handmaid of a woman, Even so sin has not been sent upon the earth, But man of himself has created it, And under a great curse shall they fall who commit it.
5And barrenness has not been given to the woman, But on account of the deeds of her own hands she dies without children.
6I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, by the Holy Great One, That all your evil deeds are revealed in the heavens, And that none of your deeds of oppression are covered and hidden.
7And do not think in your spirit nor say in your heart that ye do not know and that ye do not see that every sin is every day recorded in heaven in the presence of the Most High.
8From henceforth ye know that all your oppression wherewith ye oppress is written down every day till the day of your judgement.
9Woe to you, ye fools, for through your folly shall ye perish: and ye transgress against the wise, and so good hap shall not be your portion.
10And now, know ye that ye are prepared for the day of destruction: wherefore do not hope to live, ye sinners, but ye shall depart and die; for ye know no ransom; for ye are prepared for the day of the great judgement, for the day of tribulation and great shame for your spirits.
11Woe to you, ye obstinate of heart, who work wickedness and eat blood: Whence have ye good things to eat and to drink and to be filled? From all the good things which the Lord the Most High has placed in abundance on the earth; therefore ye shall have no peace.
12Woe to you who love the deeds of unrighteousness: wherefore do ye hope for good hap unto yourselves? know that ye shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous, and they shall cut off your necks and slay you, and have no mercy upon you.
13Woe to you who rejoice in the tribulation of the righteous; for no grave shall be dug for you.
14Woe to you who set at nought the words of the righteous; for ye shall have no hope of life.
15Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write down their lies that men may hear them and act godlessly towards (their) neighbour.
16Therefore they shall have no peace but die a sudden death.
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.