31. This is the verse that is quoted in a free manner in the Epistle of Jude 14 and 15. CHAP. 2, 1. Solomon directs the sluggard to the animal kingdom; Enoch, the sinners to the inanimate, as could be expected from an author who knows the secrets of nature, and writes a “book of the luminaries,” 72-82. These obey God’s laws, but rational man does not; cf. Ps. civ. 19; Eccl. i. 5. A similar contrast is found in Testamentum Naphtali.—3. The division of the year into two seasons is after the manner of the Old Testament; cf. Gen. viii. 22; Ps. lxxiv. 17; Isa. xviii. 6. CHAP. 3. What fourteen evergreen trees are here meant is uncertain. Cf. Dillmann ad loc. CHAP. 4. Opposite, i.e. in such a position that the heat can be best felt. CHAP. 5. 1. For you, i.e. for your instruction.—4. Cf. Isa. 1-3. Here he applies the lesson of the preceding. Blaspheme, or slander is a sin often rebuked in this portion of the book; cf. 27: 2; 81: 8; 91: 7, 11; 94: 9; 96: 7; 97: 6; 98: 15; 99: 1; 100: 9; 101: 3; but is not mentioned in 37-71; cf. Ps. xii. 4; Dan. vii. 8, 11, 20; Ps. cxxxix. 20, etc.—5. Their unhappy fate will induce them to curse their day as Job did when in misfortune, Job iii. 1 sqq.; Jer. xx. 14.—6. The just who had been oppressed by the sinners will curse them in the last times. You together with the sinners, i.e. you and the other sinners.—7. The author’s doctrine of retribution stands substantially on the Old Testament basis; for the reward for steadfastness consists in the blessings of this world; cf. Ex. xx. 12; Lev. xxv. 18, 19; xxvi. 4 sqq.; Deut. iv. 40; v. 33; vi. 18 sqq.; 1 Chron. xxviii. 8; Ps. xxv. 13; xxxvii. 19; lxix. 35, 36; Isa. lvii. 13; lxv. 9; Ezek. xxiii. 24-26.—8. The wisdom to be given to the just in the Messianic kingdom plays an important role in this part, and is one of the characteristics of the glorious time, 91: 10; 93: 10. Its throne is God’s throne, 84: 3; and is personified, 91: 10; and what he means by the word can be seen from 93: 8, where forgetting wisdom is synonymous with departure from the divine law. In the Parables it is not a distinctive feature of the just or of the Messianic kingdom, but is an attribute of the Messiah himself, 49: 3. The Messianic times will be free from sin, 92: 5,—a moral perfection, as is found Isa. iv. 3; xi. 9; xxxii. 1-6; 15-18.—9. Old age, according to the Old Testament idea, was a special blessing, Gen. xv. 15; xlvii. 9; Ex. xx. 12; Job v. 26; xiv. 5; and as a blessing of the Messianic times, Isa. lxv. 20, 22; Zech. viii. 4; and especially Isa. xxv. 8. Taught also in the book of the Jubilees.
S E C T I O N I I. C HAP . 6.—And it came to pass, after the children of men had increased in those days, beautiful and comely daughters were born to them. 2. And the angels, the sons of the heavens, saw and lusted after them, and said one to another: “Behold, we will choose for ourselves wives from among the children of men, and will beget for ourselves children.” 3. And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said to them: “I fear that perhaps ye will not be willing to do this deed, and I alone shall suffer for this great sin.” 4. Then all answered him and said: “We all will swear an oath, and bind ourselves mutually by a curse, that we will not give up this plan, but will make this plan a deed.” 5. Then they all swore together, and bound themselves mutually by a curse; and together they were two hundred. 6. And they descended on Ardîs, which is the summit of Mount Hermon; and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn on it and bound themselves mutually by a curse. 7. And these are the names of their leaders: Semjâzâ, who was their leader, Urâkibarâmêêl, Akibêêl, Tâmiêl, Râmuêl, Dânêl, Ezêqêêl, Sarâqujâl, Asâêl, Armers, Batraal, Anânî, Zaqêbê, Samsâvêêl, Sartaêl, Turêl, Jomjâêl, Arâzjâl. 8. These are the leaders of the two hundred angels, and the others all were with them.