Enoch - BOOK OF ENOCH, 1882

Enoch's Journeys through the Earth and Sheol: Sheol, or the Underworld.

nd from here I went to another place, and he showed me in the west a great and high mountain-chain and hard rocks and four beautiful places.

2. And beneath them there were places deep and broad and entirely smooth, as smooth as if a thing were rolled, and deep and dark to look at.

3. And this time, Rufael, one of the holy angels, who was with me, answered and said to me: "These beautiful places are intended for this, that upon them may be assembled the spirits, the souls of the dead; for they have been created, that here all the souls of the sons of men might be assembled.

4. These places have been made their dwellings till the day of their judgment, and to their fixed period; and this period is long, till the great judgment will come over them."

5. And I saw the spirits of the children of men who had died, and their voices reached up to heaven, and lamented.

6. At that time I asked the angel Rufael, who was with me, and said to him: "Whose soul is that one whose voice thus reaches to heaven and laments?"

7. And he answered and said to me, saying: "That is the spirit that proceeded from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew; and it laments on his account till his seed be destroyed from the face of the earth and his seed disappear from among the seed of men."

8. And at that time I therefore asked concerning him, and concerning the judgment of all, and said: "Why is one separated from the other?"

9. And he answered and said to me: "These three apartments are made in order to separate the souls of the dead. And thus are the souls of the just separated: there is a spring of water, above it, light. Luke 16:26

10. And thus also is one such apartment made for the sinners when they die, and are buried in the earth, without a judgment having been passed upon them during their lives.

11. Here their souls are separated in this great affliction until the great day of judgment and punishment and affliction upon the revilers to eternity, and the vengeance for their souls, and here he binds them to eternity.

12. And if it was before eternity, then this apartment has been made for the souls of those who lament and those who reveal their destruction when they were killed in the days of the sinners.

13. And thus it has been created for the souls of men who were not just, but sinners, who were complete in their crimes; and they will be with criminals like themselves; but their souls will not be killed *) on the day of judgment and will not be taken from here."

14. At that time I blessed the Lord of glory, and said: "Blessed is my Lord, the Lord of glory and of justice, who rules all things to eternity!"

*) Net edition: Schodde says this in his comment of verse 13: "The killing of the souls here referred to is not annihilation, as many other passages in Enoch show, but is identical with the eternal death in the punishment of hell. Will not be taken from here, i.e. will not rise from the dead."