1 Enoch 21:1
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
Then I traveled to a place of chaos, and there I saw something terrible.
REF And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. And I saw there something horrible:
Translator's Introduction
What This Chapter Is About
Enoch sees a chaotic, terrible place with no heaven or earth — a formless void. He sees seven fallen stars imprisoned there in great fire. Uriel explains that these are stars that transgressed God's command and are bound until ten thousand years of punishment are complete.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
The repeated emphasis on cosmic prisons — for stars, for Watchers, for the ungodly — reveals the Enochic worldview: the universe contains hidden places of judgment, operating even now, awaiting the final consummation.
Translation Friction
The ten-thousand-year punishment period (also in 18:16) represents a specific eschatological calculation that may have functioned as a real chronological prediction in some circles.
Connections
Jude 13 (wandering stars reserved for darkness); Revelation 20:1-3 (abyss as prison); 2 Peter 2:4 (chains of deepest darkness); Isaiah 24:21-22 (host of heaven punished and shut up in prison).
1 Enoch 21:2
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
I saw neither a heaven above nor a solid earth below — only a place of chaos and horror.
REF I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
- The absence of heaven and earth echoes Genesis 1:2 ('formless and void'). This is un-creation — a place where God's ordering work has been reversed or never applied.
1 Enoch 21:3
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
There I saw seven stars of heaven bound together in that place, like great mountains, burning with fire.
REF And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire.
1 Enoch 21:4
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
Then I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and why have they been thrown in here?'
REF Then I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?'
1 Enoch 21:5
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me and who was chief over them, said: 'Enoch, why do you ask, and why are you so eager for the truth?
REF Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth?
1 Enoch 21:6
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
These are among the stars of heaven that transgressed the Lord's commandment, and they are bound here for ten thousand years — until the time required by their sins is complete.'
REF These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.'
1 Enoch 21:7
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
From there I went to another place, more terrible than the first. I saw a horrible thing: a great fire burning and blazing there, and the place was split open all the way to the abyss, full of great columns of fire descending into it.
REF And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire:
1 Enoch 21:8
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
I could see neither its extent nor its size, nor could I estimate them.
REF neither its extent nor magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture.
1 Enoch 21:9
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
Then I said: 'How fearful is this place and how terrible to behold!'
REF Then I said: 'How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!'
1 Enoch 21:10
Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions
Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, answered and said: 'Enoch, why are you so afraid and shaken?' I answered: 'Because of this fearful place and the sight of such suffering.' He said to me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned forever.'
REF Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?' And I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.' And he said unto me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
- The angel prison — a place of eternal confinement for rebellious heavenly beings — is the foundational image behind 2 Peter 2:4 ('God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness') and Jude 6 ('kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day').