3 Enoch

Odeberg1928 source English page 347

CH. XLIV] METATRON SHOWS R. ISHMAEL SECRETS 139 their prayer: ‘‘Lord of the Universe! How long wilt thou sit upon (thy) Throne like a mourner in the days of his mourning with thy right hand behind thee 7and not? deliver thy children and reveal thy Kingdom in the world? *%And for how long wilt thou have no® pity upon thy children who are made slaves among the nations of the world? Nor® upon thy right hand that is behind thee wherewith thou didst stretch out 1 the heavens and the earth and the heavens of heavens? When wilt thou have compassion?” (8) Then the Holy One, blessed be He, answered every one of them, saying: ‘‘Since these wicked do sin so and so, and transgress with such and such transgressions against me, how could I deliver my great Right Hand in the downfall by their hands (caused by them)”. (9) In that moment Metatron called me and spake to me: “My servant! ‘Take the books, and read their evil doings!” Forthwith I took the books and read their doings and there were to be found 7-7 E: “when wilt thou’ 8-8 12: ‘When wilt thou have’ Ole Ands סז‎ ₪ ins.: ‘and didst span’ 11 12 reads: ‘(my great Right Hand) that has fallen down in the downfall at their hands’ 69 graves and have ascended to Ragia‘’ is also suspect in this connection: it sounds as if we were here confronted with a different conception as to the fate of men after death, according to which the Patriarchs and (some of) the righteous enjoy the privilege of bodily resurrection before the final consummation. How long wilt thou sit... .thy right hand behind thee. The Right Hand or the Right Arm of the Lord represent the actualization of the kingdom of God on earth, the deliverance of Israel. That the Right Hand is laid behind the Lord is a symbol of cessation in His activity for this purpose. The deliverance of the Right Hand, hence, becomes synonymous with the deliverance of Israel. Cf. ch. xlviii A. It was God’s Right Hand that stretched out the heavens and the earth, and so it must be His Right Hand that shall bring about the final establishment of the Kingdom on earth. (8) Since these wicked do sin... how could I deliver my great Right Hand etc. The delay in the deliverance of Israel is caused by the wicked in their own ranks. That the downfall of Israel was caused by the wicked among them is a dictum attributed to R. Gamaliel II. In particular the idolatry was made responsible for the delay in the establishment of God’s Kingdom. The coming of Messiah is suspended for a period which exactly corresponds to the number of years that Israel has been worshipping idols, acc. to “Echa R. Proém. 21. Similarly, in the Apocalyptic Fragment, Bodl. MicH. 175, referred to above, R. Ishmael is repre- sented as asking for the reason of the present sufferings of Israel, whereon he is informed that the deliverance is to be suspended for a time corresponding to that of their idolatry (700 years). Here evidently—see vs. g—the ‘sins’ of the wicked comprise all ‘transgressions of the Tora’. ‘These sinners’ was perhaps by the compiler thought to refer to the wicked of vss. 1-6, this being then one of the reasons why this fragment was given its present place. (9) Take the books, and read their evil doings! On the conception of books recording the deeds of righteous or unrighteous etc. see note on ch. xviii. 24. The books here seem to be the records of the deeds of the wicked, cf. 1 Fn. lxxx1. 4 (book of unrighteousness), 72. xcviii. 7-8 (‘“‘every sin is every day recorded in heaven—all your oppression...is written down every day till the day of your