Chapter 41

 

 

1After this I beheld the secrets of the heavens and of paradise,48 according to its divisions; and of human action,49 as they weigh it there in balances. I saw the mansions of the elect, and the abodes of the holy.50 And there my eyes beheld all the sinners, who denied the Lord of glory, and whom they were expelling from there, and dragging away, as they stood there; no punishment proceeding against them from the Lord of spirits. 2There, too, my eyes beheld the secrets of the lightning and the thunder; and the secrets of the winds, how they are distributed as they blow over the earth: the secrets of the winds, of the dew, and of the clouds. There I perceived the place from which they issued forth, and became saturated with the dust of the earth. 3There I saw the wooden51 receptacles out of which the winds became separated, the receptacle of hail, the receptacle of snow, the receptacle of the clouds, and the cloud itself, which continued over the earth before the creation of the world. 4 I beheld also the receptacles of the moon, whence the moons52 came, whither they proceeded, their glorious return, and how one became more splendid than another. I marked their rich progress, their unchangeable progress, their disunited and undiminished progress; their observance of a mutual fidelity by a stable oath;53 their 48 the kingdom or paradise. 49 the work or labour of man. 50 See the Gospel of John 14:2 51 of woods. 52 they. 53 by an oath to which they adhered. The Book of Enoch the Prophet 42 proceeding forth before the sun, and their adherence to the path allotted them,54 in obedience to the command of the Lord of spirits. Potent is his name for ever and for ever. 5After this I perceived, that the path both concealed and manifest of the moon, as well as the progress of its path, was there completed by day and by night; while each, one with another, looked towards the Lord of spirits, magnifying and praising without cessation, since praise to them is rest; for in the splendid sun there is a frequent conversion to blessing and to malediction. 6The course of the moon’s path to the righteous is light, but to sinners it is darkness; in the name of the Lord of spirits, who created a division between light and darkness, and, separating the spirits of men, strengthened the spirits of the righteous in the name of his own righteousness. 7Nor does the angel prevent this, neither is he endowed with the power of preventing it; for the Judge beholds them all, and judges them all in his own presence

Chapter 42

 

 

1Wisdom found not a place on earth where she could inhabit; her dwelling therefore is in heaven. 2Wisdom went forth to dwell among the sons of men, but she obtained not a habitation. Wisdom returned to her place, and seated herself in the midst of the angels. But iniquity went forth after her return, who unwillingly found a habitation, and resided among them, as rain in the desert, and as a dew in a thirsty land.