1 Enoch / Chapter 7

1 Enoch 7

6 verses • Ge'ez (Ethiopic) 1 tradition available

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

The Watchers take human wives, who bear giants (Nephilim) of enormous size. The giants devour the produce of humanity, then turn to consuming humans themselves, and finally each other. Blood and violence fill the earth.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

The escalation pattern — consume resources, consume people, consume each other — is a vivid depiction of how violence, once unleashed, becomes self-consuming. This directly explains why the flood was necessary in the Enochic worldview.

Translation Friction

The physical dimensions of the giants (three thousand ells) are clearly hyperbolic. The narrative functions as theological explanation for the 'violence that filled the earth' of Genesis 6:11.

Connections

Genesis 6:4 (Nephilim); Genesis 6:11-13 (earth filled with violence); Numbers 13:33 (Nephilim in Canaan); Wisdom of Solomon 14:6 (giants who perished).

1 Enoch 7:1

Ge'ez text; cf. Aramaic fragments

And all the others together with them took wives for themselves — each chose one — and they began to be intimate with them and to defile themselves with them. They taught them sorcery and spells and the cutting of roots, and revealed to them the knowledge of plants.

REF And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The transmission of forbidden knowledge is a key theme. The Watchers corrupt humanity not only through physical union but through teaching — a theme developed further in chapter 8.

Joseph Smith Translation (Footnotes)ethical

'Judge not' absolute prohibition qualified: do not judge unrighteously

The KJV's unqualified 'Judge not, that ye be not judged' is revised in the JST to specify that unrighteous judgment is prohibited, not all judgment. This aligns with John 7:24 ('Judge righteous judgment') and prevents the verse from being used as a blanket prohibition against moral discernment. It is one of the more widely discussed JST footnotes in LDS ethical theology.

1 Enoch 7:2

Ge'ez text; cf. Aramaic fragments

And the women became pregnant and bore great giants, whose height was three thousand cubits.

REF And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

"" —

Ge'ez: nabaran. Corresponding to Hebrew Nephilim (Genesis 6:4). In the Enochic tradition, they are the hybrid offspring of Watchers and human women.

Translator Notes

  1. The measurement is clearly symbolic/hyperbolic. The emphasis is on the unnatural, monstrous nature of the offspring — beings that should not exist, born from the violation of the boundary between heaven and earth.

Joseph Smith Translation (Footnotes)ethical

Judgment-measure principle clarified to reinforce righteous discernment

Follows from the v. 1 revision. The JST adjusts the reciprocal judgment saying to fit the reframed prohibition: the concern is with the standard used, not with judging itself.

1 Enoch 7:3

Ge'ez text; cf. Aramaic fragments

These giants consumed all the food that humans produced. And when people could no longer feed them,

REF Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them,

Joseph Smith Translation (Footnotes)theological

Hardening of Pharaoh's heart reassigned: God no longer the agent; Pharaoh hardens his own heart

The KJV 'I will harden Pharaoh's heart' becomes a statement that Pharaoh will harden his own heart. This is the most prominent JST resolution of the Exodus hardening problem, which has been a locus of debate about divine determinism and human free will. The JST reading aligns with the Arminian/free-will position and with several later Exodus verses where Pharaoh is said to harden his own heart.

1 Enoch 7:4

Ge'ez text; cf. Aramaic fragments

the giants turned against the people and devoured them.

REF the giants turned against them and devoured mankind.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The progression from consuming resources to consuming humans illustrates the insatiable nature of violence and transgression — a theological point, not merely a horror story.
1 Enoch 7:5

Ge'ez text; cf. Aramaic fragments

And they began to sin against birds and beasts and reptiles and fish, and to devour one another's flesh and drink the blood.

REF And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Blood-drinking directly violates the Noahide commandment of Genesis 9:4. The Enochic narrative provides the backstory for why this prohibition was necessary. Sin against animals anticipates the corruption of all flesh mentioned in Genesis 6:12.
1 Enoch 7:6

Ge'ez text; cf. Aramaic fragments

Then the earth brought accusation against the lawless ones.

REF Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The earth itself becomes a witness and plaintiff — a motif found in Genesis 4:10 (Abel's blood cries from the ground) and Deuteronomy 32:1 (heavens and earth as witnesses). Creation has legal standing before God.
Chapter 6 Report an error 1 Enoch index Chapter 8