3 Enoch Chapter 35: Modernized English & Source Wording

The Hebrew Book · Lightly modernized English

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Rabbi Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me:

¹ 506 thousand myriads of camps has the Holy One, blessed be he, in the height of 'Araboth Raqia. And each camp is (composed of) 496 thousand angels.

² And every single angel, the height of his stature is as the great sea; and the appearance of their face as the appearance of the lightning, and their eyes as lamps of fire, and their arms and their feet like in color to polished brass and the roaring voice of their words like the voice of a multitude.

³ And they are all standing before the Throne of Glory in four rows. And the princes of the army are standing at the head of each row.

⁴ And some of them utter the "Holy" and others utter the "Blessed", some of them run as messengers, others are standing in attendance, according as it is written (Dan. vii. 10): "Thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set and the books were opened ".

⁵ And in the hour, when the time draws near for to say the "Holy", (then) first there goes out a whirlwind from before the Holy One, blessed be he, and bursts upon the camp of Shekina and there arises a great commotion among them, as it is written (Jer.xxx. 23): "Look, the whirlwind of the Lord goes forth with fury, a continuing commotion".

⁶ At that moment thousand thousands of them are changed into sparks, thousand thousands of them into firebrands, thousand thousands into flashes, thousand thousands into flames, thousand thousands into males, thousand thousands into females, thousand thousands into winds, thousand thousands into burning fires, thousand thousands into flames, thousand thousands into sparks, thousand thousands into chashmals of light; until they take upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, the high and lifted up, of the Creator of them all with fear, dread, awe and trembling, with commotion, anguish, terror and trepidation. Then they are changed again into their former shape to have the fear of their King before them alway, as they have set their hearts on saying the Song continually, as it is written (Is. vi. 3): "And one cried to another and said (Holy, Holy, Holy, etc.)".