1 Enoch / Chapter 84

1 Enoch 84

6 verses • Ge'ez (Ethiopic)

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Enoch offers a prayer of praise and petition to God, acknowledging his absolute sovereignty over all creation. He confesses that nothing is too hard for God, asks him to preserve a righteous seed on earth after the judgment, and not to destroy all flesh.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

This is the most sustained prayer in 1 Enoch and one of the finest liturgical compositions in all Second Temple literature. The prayer moves from cosmic praise (God rules all, nothing is hidden) to personal petition (spare a remnant) to covenantal hope (establish righteousness forever). Its theological depth — affirming both total divine sovereignty and the possibility of mercy within judgment — places it alongside the great biblical prayers of Moses (Exodus 32), Daniel (Daniel 9), and Solomon (1 Kings 8).

Translation Friction

The prayer assumes the flood is still future, yet Enoch addresses God as one who already knows the outcome. This creates a temporal tension: Enoch prays for a future he may already know (from the heavenly tablets) will include Noah's survival. Whether the prayer is genuine petition or liturgical performance is an open question.

Connections

Genesis 6:5-8 — God's grief and Noah's favor. Exodus 32:11-14 — Moses's intercession. Daniel 9:4-19 — Daniel's prayer of confession. Nehemiah 9:5-37 — the great prayer of national confession. James 5:16 — the prayer of a righteous person is powerful.

1 Enoch 84:1

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

I lifted my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One. I spoke with the breath of my mouth and with the tongue of flesh that God made for the children of humanity — so that they might speak with it. He gave them breath, tongue, and mouth so that they might speak.

REF And I lifted up my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One, and spake with the breath of my mouth, and with the tongue of flesh, which God has made for the children of the flesh of men, that they should speak therewith, and He gave them breath and a tongue and a mouth that they should speak therewith:

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The emphasis on physical speech — breath, tongue, mouth, flesh — grounds the prayer in embodied human experience. Enoch prays not as an angel but as a mortal man using the body God gave him. The contrast between his heavenly visions and his fleshly prayer underscores the mystery of divine-human communication.
1 Enoch 84:2

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

'Blessed are you, O Lord — King, great and mighty in your greatness, Lord of the whole creation of heaven, King of kings and God of the whole world. Your power, kingship, and greatness endure forever and ever, and throughout all generations your dominion stands. All the heavens are your throne forever, and the whole earth your footstool forever and ever.'

REF 'Blessed be Thou, O Lord, King, Great and mighty in Thy greatness, Lord of the whole creation of the heaven, King of kings and God of the whole world. And Thy power and kingship and greatness abide for ever and ever, and throughout all generations Thy dominion; and all the heavens are Thy throne for ever, and the whole earth Thy footstool for ever and ever.'

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The doxology draws from Isaiah 66:1 ('heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool') and Daniel 2:37 ('King of kings'). The accumulation of superlatives — great, mighty, King of kings, God of the whole world — builds an overwhelming case for divine sovereignty before the petition begins.
1 Enoch 84:3

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

'For you have made all things and you rule all things. Nothing is too hard for you. Wisdom does not depart from the place of your throne or turn away from your presence. You know, see, and hear everything — nothing is hidden from you, for you see all things.'

REF 'For Thou hast made and Thou rulest all things, and nothing is too hard for Thee, wisdom departs not from the place of Thy throne, nor turns away from Thy presence. And Thou knowest and seest and hearest everything, and there is nothing hidden from Thee for Thou seest everything.'

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. 'Nothing is too hard for you' echoes Genesis 18:14 (the promise to Sarah) and Jeremiah 32:17. The triple affirmation — know, see, hear — matches the triple denial — nothing hidden. God's omniscience is the theological foundation for both judgment (he sees all sin) and mercy (he sees the righteous remnant).
1 Enoch 84:4

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

'Now the angels of your heavens are guilty of transgression, and upon human flesh your wrath remains until the great day of judgment.'

REF 'And now the angels of Thy heavens are guilty of trespass, and upon the flesh of men abideth Thy wrath until the great day of judgement.'

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The prayer acknowledges both angelic and human guilt — the Watchers' sin (chapters 6-16) and humanity's corruption are held together. The 'great day of judgment' is the flood, but the phrase also reaches forward to the eschatological judgment.
1 Enoch 84:5

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

'Now, O God, Lord, and Great King — I implore and beg you to grant my prayer: leave me a posterity on earth and do not destroy all human flesh. Do not make the earth uninhabited, so that there would be eternal destruction.'

REF 'And now, O God and Lord and Great King, I implore and beseech Thee to fulfil my prayer, to leave me a posterity on earth, and not destroy all the flesh of man, and make the earth without inhabitant, so that there should be an eternal destruction.'

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. 'Leave me a posterity' — Enoch prays specifically for his own line to survive. Since Methuselah's grandson is Noah, the prayer is answered precisely: Enoch's posterity does survive the flood. The phrase 'eternal destruction' raises the stakes — if no remnant survives, the judgment becomes permanent annihilation rather than purifying catastrophe.
1 Enoch 84:6

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

'Now, my Lord and King, let it be done according to your will: that the seed of righteous people may be preserved, that a plant of upright lineage may be established forever, and that the righteous may not be destroyed along with the wicked.'

REF 'And now, my Lord and King, may Thy will be done that the seed of righteous men may be preserved, and a plant of just lineage be established for ever, and that the righteous should not be destroyed with the wicked.'

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

"" —

A metaphor for the righteous remnant preserved through judgment — the seed from which a renewed humanity will grow

Translator Notes

  1. The 'plant of just lineage' is a horticultural metaphor for the righteous remnant — a sapling that will survive the flood and grow into a new humanity. The same image appears in 1 Enoch 10:16 and 93:2, and echoes Isaiah 60:21 ('the branch of my planting'). The prayer's final clause — 'the righteous not destroyed with the wicked' — is Abraham's argument at Sodom (Genesis 18:23-25).
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