The Book of Enoch 56

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

Charles translation (1917)

1And I saw there the hosts of the angels of punishment going, and they held scourges and chains of iron and bronze.

And I saw there the hosts of the angels of punishment going, and they held scourges — instruments of chastisement that strip a state bare — and chains of iron and bronze, bonds that hold a state fast.

2And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: 'To whom are these who hold the scourges going?'

And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: 'To whom are these who hold the scourges going?'

3And he said unto me: 'To their elect and beloved ones, that they may be cast into the chasm of the abyss of the valley.

And he said unto me: 'To the chosen and beloved ones of the ruling states, that they may be cast into the chasm of the abyss of the low state.'

4And then that valley shall be filled with their elect and beloved, And the days of their lives shall be at an end, And the days of their leading astray shall not thenceforward be reckoned.

And then that low state shall be filled with their elect and beloved, and the days of their lives shall be at an end, and the days of their leading astray shall not thenceforward be reckoned.

5And in those days the angels shall return And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Medes: They shall stir up the kings, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them, And they shall rouse them from their thrones, That they may break forth as lions from their lairs, And as hungry wolves among their flocks.

And in those days the angels — the divine ideas — shall return and hurl themselves toward the dawn upon the Parthians and Medes, outer ruling peoples: they shall stir up the ruling states, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them, and they shall rouse them from their thrones — their seats of ruling authority — that they may break forth as lions from their lairs, the ruling animal strength loosed, and as hungry wolves among their flocks, devouring instincts among the gentle, guidable thoughts.

6And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones, [And the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor and a highway:] 7

And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones — [and the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor, where the states are beaten out and separated, and a highway, an open road of passage:]

7But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses. And they shall begin to fight among themselves, And their right hand shall be strong against themselves, And a man shall not know his brother, Nor a son his father or his mother, Till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter, And their punishment be not in vain. 8

But the city of my righteous — the organised, settled habitation-state of my right-ordered states — shall be a hindrance to their horses, their swift war-powers. And they shall begin to fight among themselves, and their right hand shall be strong against themselves, and a man shall not know his brother, nor a son his father or his mother, till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter, and their punishment be not in vain.

8In those days Sheol shall open its jaws, And they shall be swallowed up therein And their destruction shall be at an end; Sheol shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.'

In those days Sheol — the shadow-state of faculties asleep in death — shall open its jaws, and they shall be swallowed up therein, and their destruction shall be at an end; Sheol shall devour the error-bound states in the presence of the elect.'

Companion volume to The Why Bible — 1 Enoch in R. H. Charles's translation (1917), rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.