⸻ · ⸻
Chapter 8 · What the Watchers taught
8.1a
The Book of Enoch 8.1a · Azazel teaches the arts of war📜 Charles 1906, the printed page
After the giants and the first crimes of chapter 7, the book names who taught what. The list begins with Azazel.
· · ·
ወአዛዝኤል፡1
wa-ʾAzāzǝʾel
And Azazel
መሀሮሙ፡2
maharomu
taughthe taught them
ለሰብእ፡3
la-sabʾ
menhumankind
ገቢረ፡4
gabira
to makemaking
አስይፍት፡5
ʾasyǝft
swords
ወመጣብሕት፡6
wa-maṭābǝḥt
and knives
ወወልታ፡7
wa-walṭā
and shieldsand a shield
ወድርዐ፡8
wa-dǝrʿa
and the armour
እንግድዓ፡9
ʾǝngǝdʿā
of the breast,of the chest
, ወአርአዮሙ፡10
wa-ʾarʾayomu
and showed themand he showed them
ዘእምድኅሬሆሙ፡11
za-ʾǝm-dǝḫrehomu
what comes after themthat from behind them
ወምግባሮሙ፡12
wa-mǝgbāromu
and their making,and their works
, And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and the armour of the breast, and showed them what comes after them and their making,
And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and the armour of the breast, and showed them what comes after them and their making,
8.1b
The Book of Enoch 8.1b · Bracelets, kohl and dyes📜 Charles 1906, the printed page
The rest of Azazel’s list turns from weapons to adornment: jewellery, eye paint, stones and colours.
· · ·
and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of kohl, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and stones of every kind, precious [and choice], and all dyes of colour, [and the exchange of the world].
Azazel is the first teacher. Dillmann’s dictionary has his name in two Latin words, angelus lapsus, a fallen angel, with a reference to this chapter. The same name stands in the Hebrew of Leviticus 16, in the ritual of the scapegoat. What he teaches here is war. ʾAsyǝft are swords (Dillmann: gladius, ensis), maṭābǝḥt knives (culter), walṭā a shield (scutum, clypeus), and dǝrʿa ʾǝngǝdʿā, “armour of the chest”, a breastplate. Dillmann glosses dǝrʿ as lorica, thorax and cites this very phrase.
Then the text is damaged. Za-ʾǝm-dǝḫrehomu is literally “that which is from behind them”, and Charles marks the clause as corrupt, so the reader gives the words as they stand and does not guess. The last word, mǝgbār, is a deed or a work. Dillmann files Enoch 8:1 under works made by men, beside Enoch 5:2, works created by God.