2 Enoch Chapter 1: Modernized English & Source Wording

The Slavonic Book · Lightly modernized English

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¹ There was a wise man, a skilled craftsman, and the Lord conceived love for him and received him, that he should see the highest dwellings and see for himself the wise and great and inconceivable and unchanging realm of God Almighty, of the very wonderful and glorious and bright and many-eyed station of the Lord’s servants, and of the inaccessible throne of the Lord, and of the degrees and appearances of the bodiless hosts, and of the indescribable service of the multitude of the elements, and of the various appearance and indescribable singing of the host of Cherubim, and of the boundless light.

² At that time, he said, when my one hundred and sixty-fifth year was completed, I fathered my son Mathusal (Methuselah).

³ After this too I lived two hundred years and completed of all the years of my life three hundred and sixty-five years.

⁴ On the first day of the month I was in my house alone and was resting on my bed and slept.

⁵ And when I was asleep, great distress came up into my heart, and I was weeping with my eyes in sleep, and I could not understand what this distress was, or what would happen to me.

⁶ And there appeared to me two men, extremely tall, so that I never saw such on earth; their faces were shining like the sun, their eyes too (were) like a burning light, and from their lips was fire coming out with clothing and singing of various kinds in appearance purple, their wings (were )brighter than gold, their hands whiter than snow.

⁷ They were standing at the head of my bed and began to call me by my name.

⁸ And I arose from my sleep and saw clearly those two men standing in front of me.

⁹ And I greeted them and was seized with fear and the appearance of my face was changed from terror, and those men said to me:

¹⁰ Have courage, Enoch, do not fear; the eternal God sent us to you, and look! You will today ascend with us into heaven, and you will tell your sons and all your household all that they will do without you on earth in your house, and let no one seek you till the Lord return you to them.

¹¹ And I hurried to obey them and went out from my house, and made to the doors, as it was ordered me, and summoned my sons Mathusal (Methuselah) and Regim and Gaidad and made known to them all the marvels those (men) had told me.