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Chapter 6 · The Watchers come down
6.1
The Book of Enoch 6.1 · When the children of men multiplied📜 Charles 1906, the printed page
Chapter 6 opens the story of the Watchers, the angels who come down to earth. Enoch begins where Genesis 6 begins.
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ወኮነ፡1
wa-kona
And it came to passand it was
እምዘ፡2
ʾǝmza
whenfrom that
ውሉደ፡3
wǝluda
the children ofsons of
ሰብእ፡4
sabʾ
menhumankind
በዝኁ፡5
bazḫu
had multipliedthey grew many
, በእማንቱ፡6
ba-ʾǝmāntu
in those
መዋዕል፡7
mawāʿǝl
days
ተወልዳ፡8
tawalda
were bornthey were born
ሎሙ፡9
lomu
to them
ሠናያት፡10
śannāyāt
beautifulgood
ወላሕያት።11
wa-lāḥǝyāt
and lovelyand comely
አዋልድ፡12
ʾawāld
daughters
. And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days there were born to them beautiful and lovely daughters.
And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days there were born to them beautiful and lovely daughters.
6.2
The Book of Enoch 6.2 · The angels saw them📜 Charles 1906, the printed page
The angels see the daughters and make a plan. The leader’s fear, and the oath on Mount Hermon, follow in 6:3–6.
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And the angels, the children of heaven, saw them and desired them, and said to one another: “Come, let us choose wives for ourselves from the children of men, and beget children for ourselves.”
This is Genesis 6:1 told again, nearly word for word: people multiply, and daughters are born to them. Dillmann’s dictionary, under walatt, “daughter”, gives Genesis 6:1 as its first example. The Ge’ez calls people wǝluda sabʾ, “the children of men”, a phrase that matters in the next verse.
Enoch adds two words that Genesis does not have here: the daughters are śannāyāt wa-lāḥǝyāt, “beautiful and lovely”. Śannāy is the ordinary Ge’ez word for “good”; lāḥǝy is the shine of a face. The beauty is set down before anyone sees it.