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Enoch prophesied
This is the second of the apocryphal passages referred to in notes on Jud 1:9. It is quoted from the apocryphal book of Enoch, directly, or from a tradition based upon it. The passage in Enoch is as follows:
“Behold he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and to destroy the wicked, and to strive (at law) with all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him.”
The Book of Enoch, which was known to the fathers of the second century, was lost for some centuries with the exception of a few fragments, and was found entire in a copy of the Ethiopic Bible, in 1773, by Bruce. It became known to modern students through a translation from this into English by Archbishop Lawrence, in 1821. It was probably written in Hebrew. It consists of revelations purporting to have been given to Enoch and Noah, and its object is to vindicate the ways of divine providence, to set forth the retribution reserved for sinners, angelic or human, and “to repeat in every form the great principle that the world - natural, moral, and spiritual - is under the immediate government of God.”
Besides an introduction it embraces five parts: 1. A narrative of the fall of the angels, and of a tour of Enoch in company with an angel through heaven and earth, and of the mysteries seen by him. 2. Parables concerning the kingdom of God, the Messiah, and the Messianic future. 3. Astronomical and physical matter; attempting to reduce the images of the Old Testament to a physical system. 4:. Two visions, representing symbolically the history of the world to the Messianic completion. 5. Exhortations of Enoch to Methuselah and his descendants. The book shows no Christian influence, is highly moral in tone, and imitates the Old Testament myths.
With ten thousands of his saints (ἐν ἀγίαις μυριάσιν)
Lit., in or among holy myriads. Compare Deu 33:2; Zec 14:5.
Ungodly (ἀσεβεῖς) - ungodly deeds (ἔργων ἀσεβείας, lit., works of ungodliness) which they have ungodly committed (ἠσέβησαν), and of all their hard speeches which ungodly (ἀσεβεῖς) sinners, etc
The evident play upon the word ungodly can be rendered but clumsily into English. Rev., translates, All the ungodly, of all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. The words ungodly sinners are placed in an unusual position, at the end of the sentence, for emphasis; ungodliness being the key-note of the writer's thought.
Hard (τῶν σκληρῶν)
Speeches is supplied. Lit., hard things. So Rev. The railing, gainsaying ; the profane and vain babblings (2Ti 2:16). Compare Joh 6:60, a hard saying, where the word means not abusive but difficult. In Jam 3:4, rough, used of the winds. In Act 26:14, of Saul of Tarsus; “hard to kick against the pricks.”