1 Enoch / Chapter 57

1 Enoch 57

3 verses • Ge'ez (Ethiopic)

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Enoch sees chariots carrying the scattered children of Israel home from the east and west. The wind carries them back, and they are reunited in joy. This brief chapter concludes the second parable with a vision of restoration.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

The ingathering of the diaspora is the positive counterpart to the judgment visions. After the destruction of oppressors and the defeat of invading armies, Israel's scattered children are restored. The image of wind-borne chariots carrying the exiles home is a uniquely vivid expression of the ingathering hope found throughout the prophets.

Translation Friction

This chapter is extremely brief (3 verses) and may be a fragment. The 'chariots' may be literal vehicles or symbolic of divine transportation (as in 2 Kings 2:11). The relationship between this nationalist ingathering vision and the more universalist elements of the Parables is not fully resolved.

Connections

Isaiah 11:11-12 — God gathers the remnant from the four corners. Isaiah 43:5-6 — 'I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.' Isaiah 66:20 — nations bringing Israel's children as an offering. Ezekiel 37:21 — God gathering Israel from among the nations.

1 Enoch 57:1

Ge'ez: wa-'em-de'eri zeku — 'and after this'

After this I saw another host of chariots with people riding on them, coming on the winds from the east and from the west toward the south.

REF And after that I saw another host of chariots, and men riding thereon, and coming on the winds from the east and from the west to the south.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The chariots riding 'on the winds' suggests supernatural transportation — the wind itself serves as the vehicle of restoration. The direction 'toward the south' may indicate Jerusalem/Judea, which lies south of Mesopotamia (the eastern diaspora).
1 Enoch 57:2

Ge'ez: wa-tesmā' qāla markabātihomu — 'the sound of their chariots was heard'

The noise of their chariots was heard. When this commotion occurred, the holy ones in heaven took notice, and the pillars of the earth were shaken from their place, and the sound was heard from one end of heaven to the other in a single day.

REF And the noise of their chariots was heard, and when this turmoil took place the holy ones from heaven remarked it, and the pillars of the earth were moved from their place, and the sound thereof was heard from the one end of heaven to the other, in one day.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The cosmic impact of the ingathering — heaven notices, earth's pillars shake, the sound fills the entire sky — elevates a political event (return of exiles) to cosmic significance. The return of Israel is not merely a demographic shift but a creation-shaking event.
  2. The 'pillars of the earth' shaking echoes Job 9:6 and Psalm 75:3, where God shakes the foundations of the created order. The ingathering is presented as an act of new creation.
1 Enoch 57:3

Ge'ez: wa-yewaddequ — 'and they fell down'

They will all fall down and worship the Lord of Spirits. This is the end of the second parable.

REF And they shall all fall down and worship the Lord of Spirits. And this is the end of the second Parable.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The second parable concludes with universal worship — the returned exiles and presumably all witnesses fall before the Lord of Spirits. The closing formula 'this is the end of the second parable' provides a clear structural marker dividing the three parables.
Chapter 56 Report an error 1 Enoch index Chapter 58