3 Enoch 36
3 Enoch 36
Section: Metatron’s Rank and Cosmic Form
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XXXVI
The angels bathe in the fiery river before reciting the ‘ Song’
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me:
(1) At the time when the ministering angels desire to say (the) Song, (then) Nehar di-Nur (the fiery stream) trises with many “thousand thousands and myriads of myriads” (of angels) of power and strength of fire! and it runs and passes under the Throne of Glory, between the camps? of the ministering angels and the troops of ‘Araboth.
(2) And all the ministering angels first go down into Nehar di-Nur, and they dip themselves in the fire ? and dip their tongue and their mouth seven times; and after that they go up and put on the garment of ‘Machage Samal’? and cover themselves with cloaks of chashmal and stand in four rows over against the Throne of Glory, in all the heavens.
I—I in acc, with the reading of E. ‘bekamma’ A: f bamma: 2so E. A: ‘camp’ 3 E ins.: ‘in Nehar di-Nur’
Ch. xxxvi. The ministering angels, before singing the ‘Song’, i.e. in this con- nection presumably the Qédushsha, purify their bodies, in particular their tongue and mouth, in the Nehar di-Nur, the fiery river, see note on ch. xxxili. 5.
(1) Nehar di-Nur rises etc. The beginning of the verse is a covert inter- pretation of Dan. vii. 10. The fiery river is represented as bringing with it the “thousand thousands etc.” of Dan. vii. ro, all of which are fire “in strength and might”. of power and strength of fire. The present writer is unable to translate this into intelligible English: it means that the fiery substance of the angels is on this occasion intensely radiant and sparkling.
The camps probably stand for the song-uttering angels, the troops for the rest: ‘the host without reckoning’. Cf. 1 En. xl. 1 and note, ch. xxxv. r1.
(2) the angels…go down into Nehar di-Nur. Cf. May‘an Chokma, BH. i. 58-64: “in the fiery river the ministering angels bathe themselves and are renewed
every morning”. their tongue. ..seven times, the special organ for the recital of the Thrice Holy needs special purification. Cf. the passage from Hilkoth Mal’akim, quoted above, note on ch. xxxv. t. Machaqe Samal. No reasonable translation
of this term seems possible. See Jellinek, E, ad loc. chashmal. Derived from Ezek.i.4. four rows. Cf. ch. xxxv. 3.
CH. XXXVII] MERKABAH ETC. 121