CHAPTER 60
In the year five-hundred, and in the seventh month, on the fourteenth day of the month, of the life of Enoch. In that Parable I saw that the heaven of heavens shook tremendously, and the host of the Most High, and the angels, a thousand times thousand, and ten thousand times ten thousand, were disturbed exceedingly.
2. And then I saw the Head of days sitting upon the throne of his glory, and the angels and the just ones stood around him.
3. And a great trembling took hold of me, and fear seized me; my loins were bent and were loosened, and my whole being melted together, and I fell down on my face.
4. And the holy Michael sent another holy angel, one of the holy angels, and he raised me up. And as he raised me my spirit returned, for I had not been able to endure the sight of this host and of that trembling and shaking of heaven.
5. And the holy Michael said to me: “On account of what vision is such trembling? Up to to-day was the day of his mercy, and he was merciful and slow to anger over those who dwell on the earth.
6. But when the day and the power and the punishments and judgments come, which the Lord of the spirits has prepared for those who bow to the judgment of justice, and for those who deny the judgment of justice, and for those who take his name in vain—that day has been prepared a covenant for the chosen, and a test for the sinners.
7. And on that day two monsters will be distributed, a
female monster, named Leviathan, to dwell in the depth of the sea, over the fountains of the waters.
8. But the masculine is named Behemoth, who occupies, with his breast, a void desert called Dêndâin, in the east of the garden where the chosen and holy will dwell, where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first of men whom the Lord of the spirits made.
9. And I asked that other angel that he should show me the power of those monsters, how they were separated on ONE day, and that one descended into the depths of the sea and the other to the desert land.
10. And he said to me: “Thou son of man, thou desirest to know here that which is a secret.”
11. Then the other angel, who went with me, spoke to me, and showed me that which was secret, the first and the last, what is in the heavens on high, and in the earth in the deep, and on the ends of the heavens, and on the foundations of heaven, and in the repositories of the winds;
12. And how the spirits are divided, and how weighing is done, and how the fountains and the winds are counted according to the power of the spirit, and the power of the lights of the moon, and that is it a power of justice, and the divisions of the stars according to their names, and how each division is divided;
13. and peals of thunder according to the places where they fall, and all the divisions that are made among the flashes of lightning that lightning may take place, and their hosts obey.
14. For the thunder has places of rest for the awaiting of its peal, and thunder and lightning are inseparable, and although not one, both go together through the spirit and are not separated.
15. For when the lightning flashes, the thunder utters its voice, and the spirit causes a rest during the flash, and divides equally between them, for the treasury of their flashes is like the sand; and each one of them, in its flash, is held with a bridle, and turned back by the power of the spirit, and is pushed forward, according to the number of the directions on the earth.
16. And the spirit of the sea is masculine and strong, and according to the strength of his power, he draws it [i.e. the sea] back with a bridle, and in like manner it is pushed forward, and scattered in all the mountains of the earth.
17. And the spirit of the hoar-frost is his own angel, and the spirit of hail is a good angel.
18. And he has left go the spirit of the snow on account of its strength, and it has a special spirit, and that which ascends from it is like smoke, and its name is frost.
19. And the spirit of the fog is not joined with them in their repositories, but it has a special repository, for its course is in clearness and in light and in darkness and in winter and in summer, and its repository is the light, and it [i.e. the spirit] is its angel.
20. And the spirit of the dew has its dwelling-place at the ends of the heaven, and is connected with the repositories of the rain, and its course is in winter and in summer; and its clouds and the clouds of the fog are connected, and one gives to the other.
21. And when the spirit of rain moves out of its repository the angels come and open the repository, and lead it out, and when it is scattered over all the earth, and also as often as it is joined to the waters of the earth.
22. For the waters are for those who live on the earth; for they are the nourishment for the earth from the Most High, who is in heaven; therefore rain has its measure, and angels receive it.
23. All these things I saw towards the garden of the just.
24. And the angel of peace, who was with me, said to me: “These two monsters are prepared to be fed, according to the greatness of God, that the punishments from God be not in vain, and sons will be killed with their mothers, and children with their fathers.
25. When the punishments from the Lord of the spirits shall rest over them it will rest, so that the punishments from the Lord of the spirits may not come in vain over those; after that there will be a judgment in his mercy and his patience.”
CHAPTER 61
And I saw in those days that long cords were given to those angels, and they took to themselves wings, and flew, and went towards the north.
2. And I asked the angel, saying: “Why have these taken the long cords, and have gone away?” And he said to me: “They went out to measure.”
3. And the angel, who went with me, said to me: “These bring the measures of the just and the ropes of the just, that they may support themselves on the
name of the Lord of the spirits to all eternity.
4. And the chosen will begin and dwell with the chosen, and these measures will be given to faith [fidelity], and will strengthen the word of justice.
5. And these measures will reveal all the secrets of the depths of the earth, and those who have been destroyed by the desert, and those who have been devoured by the fish of the sea, and by the beasts, that they return and support themselves on the day of the Chosen One, for none will be destroyed before the Lord of the spirits, and none can be destroyed.
6. And then received a command all who dwell in the heights of heaven, and ONE power, and ONE voice, and ONE light, like the fire, was given to them.
7. And that one first they blessed and exalted and glorified with wisdom, and showed themselves wise in speech and in the spirit of life.
8. And the Lord of the spirits placed his Chosen One on the throne of his glory, and he will judge all the deeds of the holy ones in heaven, and will weigh their deeds on scales.
9. And when he shall raise his countenance to judge their paths that are secret by the word of the name of the Lord of the spirits, and their path in the way of the just judgment of the highest God, then they will all speak with ONE voice, and bless, and praise,
and exalt, and glorify the name of the Lord of the spirits.
10. And then will cry out all the host of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the host of God, Cherubim and Seraphim and Ophanim, and all the angels of power, and all the angels of supremacies, and the Chosen One, and the other powers on the earth, above the water, on that day;
11. and will raise ONE voice, and will bless, and glorify, and praise, and exalt, in the spirit of faith [fidelity], and in the spirit of wisdom and of patience, and in the spirit of mercy, and in the spirit of judgment and of peace, and in the spirit of goodness, and will all say with ONE voice; ‘Blessed is he, and blessed be the name of the Lord of the spirits, in eternity, and to eternity.’
12. And all who do not sleep in high heavens will bless him; all his holy ones, who are in heaven, will bless him, and all the chosen, who dwell in the garden of life, and every spirit of light, who is able to bless, and glorify, and exalt, and say: ‘Holy,’ to thy sacred name, and all flesh, which will exceedingly praise and bless thy name to all eternity.
13. For great is the mercy of the Lord of the spirits, and he is slow to anger, and all his doing, and all his power, as much as he has made, he has revealed to the just and to the chosen, in the name of the Lord of the spirits.
CHAPTER 62
And thus the Lord commanded the kings and the powerful and the exalted and those who dwell on the earth, and said; “Open your eyes, and lift up your horns, if ye are able to recognize the Chosen One.”
2. And the Lord of the spirits sat on the throne of his glory, and the spirit of justice was poured out over him, and the word of his mouth slew all the sinners and all the impious, and they were destroyed before his face.
3. Then will stand up on that day all the kings and the powerful and the exalted and those who hold the earth, and will see him and will know that he sits on the throne of his glory, and that the just are judged in justice before him, and that there is no word spoken in vain before him.
4. And pain will come over them, like a woman who is in travail, and to whom the birth is hard, when the son enters the mouth of the mother, and she has pain in giving birth.
5. And one portion of them will look upon the other, and will tremble and cast down their countenances, and pain will seize them, when they see this Son of the woman sitting on the throne of his glory.
6. And the powerful kings, and all who hold the earth, will honor, and bless, and exalt him who rules over all, who was hidden.
7. For formerly the Son of man was hidden, and the Most High preserved him before his power, and has revealed him to the chosen.
8. And the congregation of the holy and the chosen will be sown, and all the chosen will stand before him on that day.
9. And all the powerful kings and the exalted and they who rule the earth will fall before him upon their faces, and will worship and will hope in this Son of man, and will petition him and ask him for mercy.
10. And that Lord of the spirits will only press them, that they hasten to leave his presence and their countenances will be filled with shame, and darkness will be heaped upon their countenances.
11. And the angels of punishment will receive them to take vengeance on them, because they have abused his children and his chosen.
12. And they will be a spectacle for the just and for his chosen; they will rejoice over them, because the wrath of the Lord of the spirits rests upon them, and the sword of the Lord of the spirits is drunk with them.
13. And the just and chosen will be saved on that day, and will henceforth not see the face of the sinners and of the unjust.
14. And the Lord of the spirits will dwell over them, and they will dwell with this Son of man, and will eat and lie down and rise again with him to all eternity.
15. And the just and the chosen will have risen from the earth, and will have ceased to cast down their faces, and will be clothed with the garments of life.
16. And these will be the garments of life before the Lord of the spirits; and your garments will not become old, and your glory will not decrease before the Lord of the spirits.
CHAPTER 63
And in those days the powerful kings, who hold the earth, will petition the angels of punishment, to whom they are delivered, that they should give them a little rest, so that they could fall down and worship before the Lord of the spirits, and could acknowledge their sins before him.
2. And they will bless and glorify the Lord of the spirits, and will say: “Blessed is the Lord of the spirits, and the Lord of kings, the Lord of the powerful, and the Lord of the rulers, and the Lord of glory, and the Lord of wisdom, and every secret is clear.
3. And thy power is to all generations, and thy glory to all eternity: deep are thy secrets all and without number, and thy justice without reckoning.
4. Now we know that we should praise and bless the Lord of kings, and him who rules over all the kings.”
5. And they will say: “Who will give us rest, that we might praise and thank and bless him, and be believers before his glory?
6. And now we long for a little rest, and do not find it; we are driven away, and do not receive it; the light has ceased before us, and darkness is our dwelling-place to all eternity.
7. For before him we have not believed, and have not honored the name of the Lord of the kings, and we have not praised the Lord in all his doing, and our hope was in the sceptre of our kingdom and in our glory.
8. And in the day of our trial and our trouble he did not save us, and we do not find rest to believe that our Lord is faithful in all his deeds and in all his judgments and his justice, and that his judgment does not respect persons.
9. And we shall disappear before his face on account of our deeds, and all our sins are counted in justice.”
10. Now they will say to them: “Our souls are satisfied with unjust goods, but it does not prevent our going to the flames of the pain of hell.”
11. And after that their countenances will be filled with darkness and shame before that Son of man, and they will be expelled from his presence, and a sword will dwell in their midst before his countenance.
12. And thus said the Lord of the spirits: “This is the ordinance and judgment of the mighty and the kings and the exalted and those who hold the earth before the Lord of the spirits.”
CHAPTER 64
And I saw other faces in that place in secret.
2. I heard the voice of the angel saying: “These are the angels who descended from heaven upon the earth, and have revealed to the children of men that which was secret, and have led astray the sons of men that they committed sin.”
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CHAP. 60. 1. This whole chapter is one of the Noachic fragments, as is shown by the contents, cf. Introd. The date being given here points to a new author; as in the other portions there is never the least hint given as to the time when the vision was received, except in an indefinite way in 83:2 and 85:3, and as the verse is, beyond all doubt, constructed after Gen. v. 32, and Noah, not Enoch, is the recipient of the vision in the following; and as the contents point to the time of its reception after the death of Enoch, it is an absolute certainty that for life of Enoch we should read life of Noah. Its introduction here can be explained by the fact that Noah as well as Enoch received revelations, Gen. vi. 13, and its object was probably to supplement the brief statements of the rest of the book concerning the first judgment, as the second had received such a minute description.
All these additions treat of the flood. Parable, i.e. the following vision. The effort of the interpolator to connect his fragments with the Parables is also clear from 68:1. Shaking of the heavens is a sign of a coming revelation of judgment, 1:9; 14:22; 40:1; 71:8, 13. Host, cf. note on 1:9.—2. Head of days, in imitation of the Parables, cf. 55:1, as is also the sitting on the throne of glory, as a sign of judgment, cf. 47:3 and passim. By remarking that the just ones stand around the throne the fragmentist blends the two judgments into one, unless, indeed, he understands by the just ones the patriarchs who had died before the time of the deluge. It is scarcely possible that he would have used the word as synonymous with angels.—3. Cf. 14:13; 14:24. Loins, cf. Isa. xlv. 1; Ps. lxix. 23.—4. Cf. Dan. viii. 17 sqq.; x. 9, 10.
Michael here is the first and highest angel, strictly in accordance with 40:4, and not like 20:5, where he is fourth in rank. As one to whom almost divine attributes are ascribed, 40:9, he does not raise Noah himself, but sends another angel, whose occupation is similar to that of the angel of peace (vs. 24) in the Parables; cf. note on 40:2.—6. Power, because the day of the deluge will develop God’s power. After the manner of 37-71, mankind is divided into two classes, those who bow to, i.e. believe in, the judgment and those who deny it. The writer here clearly adapts the description of the second judgment in the Parables to the first.—7, 8.
This judgment shall consist in a flood, as is shown by the mention of the two monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan, of Job XL. and xli., and are also, according to Jewish interpreters, to be found in Gen. I. 21; Ps. XL. 10; Isa. xxvii. 1. On this strange fancy of later Judaism, cf. Drummond, p. 352 sqq. As they are male and female, and at least one of them dwells in the water, it is probable that they are in some way connected with the masculine and feminine water of 54:8, perhaps personifications of the destructive elements in the waters above and below; cf. verse 24. On the subterranean fountains, cf. Gen. vii. 11; Job xxxviii. 16. Dendain HTR “the judgement of a judge,” is probably a fictitious place, cf. 10:4.
The garden is, of course, Eden. It is very strange that the desert should be in this garden. Probably better, to the east of the garden, as the preposition ba is frequently used in the sense of ad, apud, juxta, cf. Dillmann, Lex., col. 478. Whether the souls of the departed saints shall dwell there from their death to the last judgment, or after that, is not clear, although the former is the more probable; cf. 70:3. Enoch was in reality the great-grandfather of Noah, but cf. 65:2, 5, 9; 67:4; 68:1. Taken up, cf. Dillmann, ad loc. Seventh from Adam, cf. Jude 14.—9. That other angel, cf. vs. 4. How, in the sense of why. —10. Son of man, the mysterious name with which Ezekiel is constantly addressed; cf. En. 71:14.—11.
With the other angel, cf. vs. 4; the writer connects the following with the previous, and with his statement and showed me that which was secret enlarges on the secrets of the physical world before he answers Noah’s question, for the answer does not follow till vs. 24. The first and the last, i.e. all, Repositories of the winds, cf. 18:1.—12. Spirits are divided, i.e. to what phenomena of nature special spirits are given; cf. vs. 16-21. This peculiar, gnostic way of allotting spirits or angels is a certain proof of the comparatively late origin of these additions. The notion is frequently developed in later Jewish books, e.g. Book of the Jubilees, chap. 5. Augustine (Quest. 83, 79) remarks: unaquaeque res visibilis in hoc mundo habet potestatem angelicam sibi praepositam. Cf. also Sir. xxxix. 28, 29 and Langen, p. 306 sqq.
Weighing, not in the moral and judicial sense, but rather, as in 43:2, to indicate that these phenomena receive each only a certain mass of substance and degree of power, as in Job xxviii. 25. Power of the lights of the moon, i.e. in the different phases of her appearance; cf. 43:2. Power of justice, i.e. that even these natural phenomena, and not only the moral world, are guided by a certain power of justice. Divisions and the following are still objects of showed in vs. 11; cf. 82:9 sqq.—13. Cf. Job xxxvii. 1-5.—14. Places of rest are not repositories. Thunder and lightning originate together, but the former must wait a certain time before it can resound, and this waiting is done in the places of rest.—15. The whole government of these two phenomena is in the hands of their angel. Divides equally allows them to appear only in a certain number and at a certain time.—16.
This explains the tide and ebb of the sea.—17. Is his (own) angel, i.e. has his own peculiar (GTR) angel (Dillmann). The spirit of hail is good to show that this generally injurious phenomenon is not under a demon.—18. Left go, i.e. allowed him to be independent, but strangely on account of its strength! —19. The fog he especially enlarges on, on account of its frequent occurrence. It can appear both in clear and in dark weather, and at all times. The rest of the sentence is mysterious.—20. That the dew is closely connected with both rain and fog is easily understood.—21. As the rain is so important for the world, even ethically (Job xxxvii. 12, 13), its guidance is entrusted not to its own spirit, but to the angels; cf. Job xxviii. 26; xxxviii. 25-27, 33-38.—24. Now first comes the answer to Noah’s question, vs. 9. These monsters will be fed by those destroyed in the deluge, as God has determined, according to his greatness, and thus the punishment will not be in vain. According to other apocryphal and rabbinical writings these two monsters are to be the food of the just in the Messianic times; cf. Drummond, p. 355.—25. Cf. Gen. viii. 21, 22; En. 50:3; 61:13.
CHAP. 61. 1. The author of the Parables continues with an account of how the future Messianic kingdom was measured. The account is, then, in full harmony with the object of the third Parable, 58:1, and rests on Zech. ii. 5-9; also cf. Ezek. xl. 3 sqq. and xlvii. 3 sqq. Those angels, i.e. those will-known angels, already mentioned so frequently. Took wings is especially added because the Old Testament does not represent angels as possessing wings. Towards the north, of uncertain meaning; but cf. 25:5.—2.
The angel here asked is the angel of peace; cf. 40:2. Went out to measure, the object is supplied further on in stating that they will measure the future home of the just.—3. Therefore they are called the measures of the just. The result will be that the just will lean firmly on the Lord.—4. After the future Messianic kingdom has been measured out, then the chosen will dwell there with the chosen, no longer mixed and interfered with by the unjust; cf. 38:1; 53:6; 62:8; the reward promised to fidelity will be given them, and righteousness during the time of oppression will now receive its reward, and be manifested as being will founded.—5. On the day of the Chosen One, which is the day of the realization of the prophecies just stated, the departed saints shall return and take part in the happiness. As he speaks here only of the bliss of the saints, and not of the condemnation of the sinners, he mentions only the resurrection of the former, but thereby in no wise contradicts his previous doctrine of a general resurrection, 51:1.
By the sea and by beasts, to show that God will fulfil his promises to all, even to those who according to human ideas could not possibly rise again. If we were allowed to believe that the author taught the resurrection of the body as well as of the soul, the force of this clause would be greatly increased. Unless the word earth in 51:1 is simply used rhetorically to round off the sentence we might believe that the earth there is the receptacle for the bodies and Sheol and hell for the souls, and that the bodily resurrection is there taught also.—6. All who dwell in heaven, i.e. the angels. Received command, as the following shows, to praise and to exalt.—7. That one, i.e. the Messiah. It may be that instead of Kâl we should read bakâla, i.e. jussu, agreeing with verse 6, and thus translate: And that one, according to the command, they praised first; cf. 40:5. Spirit of life, undoubtedly an expression for their enthusiasm.—8. Modeled after Ps. cx. 1. The words as they stand indicate that the Messiah is to judge the angels also, as they alone are called holy ones in the high heavens. But in verse 10 those here judged are distinctly separated from the host of heavens, and then it is against the spirit of the book that the good angels should be judged. In high heavens is, beyond all doubt, an addition of the translator. The idea of angels was still in his mind from vs. 6 and 7, and he did not notice the change of subjects in this verse. But that the just shall be judged is in perfect harmony with the strictly forensic character of the judgment in the Parables, and suits remarkably well to the connection. Weighed, cf. note on 41:1.—9. Secret; as all the secret wickedness of the sinners shall be judged, thus too shall the secret and unappreciated virtue and firmness of the just receive their reward.
By the word, i.e. either in the name of the Lord, as if the Lord himself pronounced the judgment, or, taking nagar in the sense of mandatum (Judith ii. 1; Gen. xxiv. 9), by the command of, thus commenting on verse 8.—10. At the sight of this final justice and happiness accorded to the saints by God through the Messiah, all the hosts of heaven, and even the Messiah himself, will praise and glorify God. Host of God, distinguished from the general host of heavens, are the archangels, divided here and 71:7 into the three scriptural classes of Cherubim, Seraphim, and Ophanim. The last name is from Ezra I. and x. Angels of power and supremacy, cf. Col. I. 16; Eph. I. 21. As no anticlimax can be thought of, it cannot be decided whether these co- or sub-ordinate to the archangels; cf. Test. Levi, 3. Other powers, i.e. the lower classes of angels. Chosen One, cf. 40:5.—11. The motives that prompt to this praise are of the highest spiritual character. On the doxology, cf. 39:10.—12. Who do not sleep, cf. note on 12:2. Garden of justice.
In 70:4 Enoch finds the first patriarchs there. According to the first part, when he visited Paradise (cf. note on 32:6) it was apparently empty, These expressions can scarcely be harmonized with the rest of the book; cf. note on 60:7, 8. Spirit of light is founded on passages like Job xxiv. 13 sqq.; xxxviii. 15. All flesh shows that most assuredly not all flesh dwells in the Paradise. The author evidently thinks that it is the place of the departed saints, where they shall remain to the coming of the Messiah.—13. They praise those attributes of God which he has chiefly exhibited in the judgment.
CHAP. 62. 1. This is one of the most interesting and important chapters in the whole book: interesting, because it so well portrays the forensic character of the last judgment, important, because it affords the best hold for those who claim, for the Parables at least, a Christian origin; and Hilgenfeld has taken some of his sharpest javelins from this chapter in his Die jüdische Apokalyptik, etc., 1857.—After the judgment of the just comes that of the kings and the mighty, together with those who dwell on the earth. There is a temporal, but no local, difference between these judgments, as in verse 3 the kings must behold the just judgment of the saints. It is no tautology to bring in this judgment here as in 46:4-8; 48:8-10; 53-54:3, only certain phases of this judgment are recorded, but here the very act with its connecting circumstances are recorded. Just when the resurrection of the dead sinners, made necessary from 51:1 before this judgment, shall take place is not stated, but verse 2 of that chapter almost forces the idea that it is to be contemporaneous with the resurrection of the just, mentioned 61:5. There no mention of the rising of the wicked was needed; but, as in the author’s mind the two classes will rise together, he makes no mention here of the resurrection.
Kings and powerful, cf. 38:4; 46:7; 62:3, 6, 9; 63:1, 12; 67:8, 12. His polemics are against the rich and exalted who are happy in the possessions of this world, trust them only, and care not for the future. Now these proud ones will not even be able to lift up their eyes, out of shame and fear on account of their former conduct. They had denied the Messiah, but now must see that he has come as judge. Horns, cf. Ps. lxxv. 4, 5. As a curiosity it may be mentioned that Hilgenfeld, p. 174, claims that the word recognize implies that they had seen the Messiah before, and this must have been in the time when Christ became man!—2.
As this verse is Modeled after Isa. xi. 4, and the expression the spirit of justice was poured out over him suits only the Messiah, and not God, the over him must refer to the Messiah. To interpret it of God breaks the whole force of this and the following verses; cf. Psalt. Salom. xvii. 39; 4 Ezra xiii. 10 sqq. The perfect is used here because Enoch saw these things.—3. Now he continues prophetically to his readers, and speaks in the future tense. In looking at the word know here and recognized verse 1, it seems that those judged here are those who had heard of the coming Messiah through the prophets, but had refused to hear of him, had denied him and his judgments, but are now convinced by his presence. The seer would then be addressing the fallen in Israel alone, and the judgment would be a partial one, as it is in 90:26. Thus also it would be in perfect harmony with the conversion of the heathen nations to the Messianic kingdom described in chap. 57 and elsewhere.
In vain; from the forensic character of the judgment this must mean that nothing but justice shall here decide.—4. Cf. Isa. xxi. 3; xxvi. 17; xxxvii. 3; Jer. iv. 31; xxii. 23; xxx. 6; John xvi. 21; Homer, Il. 11, 269 sqq.—5. Son of the woman, found only here in all apocryphal writings. Hilgenfeld, p. 157, confidently claims this expression as a proof of the Christian origin of the Parables, as the idea of a mysterious Messiah coming from on high and of a chosen man born in the ordinary way could not have been combined until the coming of Christ in the flesh. But we must remember that the Messiah of the Parables is far from being a divine being; and even if the name could not be based on a combination of Dan. vii. and Mic. v. 2 (as it may, however), the objection that is here raised against the human side of the Messiah in his name as Son of the woman would be every bit as valid against his name as Son of man.
The name, however, was easily suggested by the biblical Son of man. Furthermore, as the translators of the Ethiopic Bible frequently introduced New Testament expressions into the Old (cf. Herzog, R. E. xii. p. 310) it is easily possible that he word woman was introduced by the Christian translator for man, or by the copyist, as beezit (woman) and beeze (man) are distinguished by only one letter.—6. Rules, from Dan. vii. 14.—7, 8. Was hidden, cf. 48:6, 7. The idea that this Messiah was hidden is based on his sudden and mysterious appearance Dan. vii. 13. The idea here could under no circumstances refer to the dwelling of the Logos with God before Christ became man, for here the Messiah is hidden until the day of judgment, and then suddenly appears—a statement entirely strange to a Christian, who knew the Messiah had appeared, but also that the final judgment had not; whereas the appearance of the Messiah on the final day only could easily have been developed from Old Testament premises by a one-sided exegesis. Congregation of saints, cf. 38:1; 53:6. Sown, i.e. established; cf. 10:16.—9.
Now those who had denied him will even petition the Messiah for mercy.—10, 11. But this will be in vain. Shame and darkness, cf. 46:6. Angels of punishment, cf. note on 53:3.—12. Spectacle, cf. 27:3, 4; 48:9, 10. Drunk, cf. Isa. xxxiv. 5, 6.—13. The punishment of the sinners after the sentence has been passed will take place where the just will not see them; cf. note on 38:3. The act of judgment is the spectacle the just shall see, but the terrors of punishment they shall not behold.—14. Cf. Isa. iv. 5, 6; lx. 17-22; Zeph. iii. 15-17; Zech. ii. 9, 15; ix. 7, 8; En. 38:1; 45:4; 105:2. Hoffmann strangely connects this passage with Matt. xxvi. 29.
To all eternity; the eternity of the Messianic kingdom is taught by many apocryphal writers; cf. 3 Sibyl. 49-50, 766; Psalt. Salom. xvii. 4 (based on Jer. xxiv. 6; Ezek. xxxvii. 25; Joel iv. 20; Dan. vii. 27).—15. Will have risen does not refer to the resurrection, but forms simply an antithesis to the second clause. Garments of life, cf. 10:17; 58:3, and note on 37:4.—16. Will not become old; as the garments of life are symbols of eternal life it is stated that they will not grow old; cf. Deut. viii. 4; xxix. 5.
CHAP. 63, 1. Connecting with one of the most interesting statements in his account of the judgment, viz. the deliverance of the wicked into the hands of the angels of punishment, 62:11, the author relates what happens after these criminals have been removed from the presence of the just, 62:13. While the condemned are being led off to their punishment they petition their guards for rest, i.e. respite, until they can worship and petition the Lord of the spirits. It must be observed here that although their chief sin consisted in their relation to the Messiah and his kingdom, they desire still to petition God for mercy, again reminding us of the fact that the Messiah is only a deputy of God, and can act only in his name.—2.
Their prayer consists in acknowledging what they formerly denied. On the doxology cf. 22:14; 39:10 sqq.; 61:11.—3. Cf. 49:2.—6. Cf. vs. 2 and note on 10:5.—8. It is evidently a matter of importance for the author to inculcate the doctrine that after the appearance of the Messiah there will be no chance whatever of being delivered from the just punishment.—10. Cf. chap. 53 and Ps. xlix. 7-12. Hell; the original has Sheol. That the punishment shall consist in burning is taught throughout the Parables; cf. 54:1, 2, 5, 6; 63:10; 48:9.—11. Cf. vs. 11 and 12.—12 is a formal conclusion, not to the third parable, but only to chap. 62 and 63.
CHAP. 64. But the Messianic kingdom is not yet completed. In 55:4 he had said that the Messiah should judge even the fallen angels, and now he records the fact that they were in reality judged. As however this judgment was of little importance for his object, he simply mentions it here in addition to the statements of 54:3; 55:3, 4; cf. 90:24. Faces, or forms, GTR; cf. 17:1 and 40:2.
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