The Four Compartments of Sheol according to the Book of Enoch
By
James Scott Trimm
The Book of Enoch describes a compartmentalized place of the pre-resurrection afterlife as follows:
1 And thence I went to another place, and he showed me toward the west a large and high mountain of hard rock.
2 And there was in it four hollow places, deep and wide and very smooth. How smooth are the hollow places and deep and dark to look at.
3 Then Rafa’el answered, one of the set-apart angels who was with me, and said unto me: ‘These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein, yea that all the souls of the children of men should assemble here.
4 And lo these are the pits for their imprisonment; they have been fashioned in this way till the day of their judgment and till the time of the end of the great judgment and till the time of the end of the great judgment, which is to be made against them.
5 ‘ There I saw the spirit of a dead man making suit, and his voice went forth to heaven crying unceasingly and making suit.
6 And I asked Rafa’el the watcher and set-apart one who was with me, and I said unto him: ‘This spirit which makes suit, whose is it, whose voice goes forth and makes suit to heaven?’
7 And he answered me saying: ‘This is the spirit which went forth from Abel, whom his brother Cain slew, and he makes his suit against him till his seed is destroyed from the face of the earth, and his seed is annihilated from among the seed of men.’
8 Then I asked regarding it, and regarding all the hollow places: ‘Why is one separated from the other?’
9 And he answered me and said unto me: ‘These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made (for) the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.
10 And such has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime.
11 Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain till the great day of judgment and punishment and torment of those who curse forever and retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them forever.
12 And [the third] was divided for the spirits who petition with information concerning their destruction when they were killed in the day of the sinners.
13 Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and of the transgressors they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgment nor shall they be afflicted from thence.’
(1Enoch 22:1-13)
There are four compartments (22:2) but three “separations” (22:9) between them. These four compartments correspond to the four types of men according to the Talmud:
The righteous man who prospers, a righteous man who suffers, a wicked man who prospers, and a wicked man who suffers.
(b.Ber. 7a).
The righteous man who prospers is destined to the compartment “in which there is the bright spring of water”
And he answered me and said unto me: ‘These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be separated. And such a division has been made (for) the spirits of the righteous, in which there is the bright spring of water.
(1Enoch 22:9)
The wicked men who prosper are those for whom “judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime” , they suffer “great pain till the great day of judgment”
10 And such has been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment has not been executed on them in their lifetime.
11 Here their spirits shall be set apart in this great pain till the great day of judgment and punishment and torment of those who curse forever and retribution for their spirits. There He shall bind them forever.
(1Enoch 22:10-11)
The righteous men who suffers make petition concerning their destruction
And [the third] was divided for the spirits petitioned with information concerning their destruction when they were killed in the day of the sinners.
(1Enoch 22:12)
And the wicked men who suffered, “their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgment nor shall they be afflicted from thence” because they suffered for their transgression while still living.
Such has been made for the spirits of men who were not righteous but sinners, who were complete in transgression, and of the transgressors they shall be companions: but their spirits shall not be slain in the day of judgment nor shall they be afflicted from thence.’
(1Enoch 22:13)
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