Let Us Kiss Enoch
By Pinchas Shir
"Let Us Kiss Enoch" - an Excerpt from Second-Century BCE Jewish Literature - 2 Enoch 64-65
1 And it came about, when Enoch had spoken to his children and to the princes of the people, that all his people and all his neighbors heard that the LORD was calling Enoch. And they all consulted one another, saying, “Let us go and let us kiss Enoch.” 2 And they gathered together, up to two thousand men, and they arrived at the place Azukhan where Enoch was, and his sons, 3 and the elders of the people. And they kissed Enoch, 4 saying, “Blessed is the LORD, the eternal king. Bless now your people, and glorify ‹us› to the face of the LORD. 5* For the LORD has chosen you, to appoint you to be the one who reveals, who carries away our sins.”
6 |And| Enoch answered his people, saying: 1 “Listen, my children! Before all things existed, (and) before all creation came about, the LORD established the age of creation, and after that he created all his creation, visible and invisible. 2* And after all that he created man according to his image, and put in him eyes to see, ears to hear, heart to think, and reason to argue. 3 Then the LORD delivered the age for the sake of man, and he divided it into times: 4* and into hours. so that a person might think about the |changes| of the periods and their ends, the beginnings and the endings of the years and the months and the days and the hours, and so that he might |calculate| the death of his own life.
6 When the whole of creation, which the LORD has created, shall come to an end, and when each person will go to the LORD’s great judgment, 7 then the time periods will perish, and there will be neither years nor months nor days, and hours will no longer be counted; 8 But they will constitute a single age. And all the righteous, who escape from the LORD’s great judgment, will be collected together with the great age. And ‹the age› at the same time will unite with the righteous, and they will be eternal. 9 And there will be among them neither weariness nor suffering nor affliction nor expectation of violence nor the pain of the night nor darkness. 10 But they will have a great light for eternity, ‹and› an indestructible wall, and they will have a great paradise, the shelter of an eternal residence. 11* How happy are the righteous who will escape the LORD’s great judgment, for their faces will shine forth like the sun. (2 Book of Enoch 64-65 - First Century BCE)
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