<sup>Read: The Book of Enoch
Messianic Prophecy Edition

“Time-Capsule to the Last Generation”</sup>

Does Deueronomy 32:8-9, help us understand the period of the seventy shepherds in Enoch 89:59-90:13?

The Book of Enoch 89:59-90:13

Though there are hundreds of nations in the world today, there is a tradition within Judaism which refers to the original number of 70 Gentile nations. This number comes from the fallout from the Tower of Babel incident. When the Gentiles attempted to challenge God at the Tower of Babel, God's punishment was to destroy their unity by confusing their language thus dispersing them throughout the earth (Genesis 11:1-9). This event then becomes the basis for the Jewish tradition for the seventy Gentile nations coming into being, each with its own language. The seventy nations are listed in Genesis 10.

Does Deuteronomy 32:8-9, allude to this division into seventy nations?

One would not immediately see such a connection when referring to many English translations of those verses. The King James Version has,

“When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.”

However, the oldest copy of the Book of Deuteronomy in existence is from the Dead Sea Scrolls, where we find,

“When [the Most High] gave [to the nations] their inherit[ance, when] he separated [humankind, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of] the children of God” (The DSS Bible).

The oldest translation of the Old Testament in existence is the Greek Septuagint. The Book of Deuteronomy was translated for the Greek Septuagint about 300 BC, in it we read,

“When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And his people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel was the line of his inheritance.” (Brenton's Septuagint)

In a book written about 150 years before Christ, there is an apparent reference to this tradition, “He appointed a ruler for every nation, but Israel is the Lord's own portion.” (Ecclesiasticus 17:14)

If taken on face value, the verses seem to indicate when the Most High divided the Goyim into the seventy nations, he did so according to a set number of seventy angels... “according to the number of the angels of God”. However, the chosen nation was not under such rulership as they were became the Lord's portion.

Now, we come to a passage in the Book of Enoch which has puzzled many for a long time... the passage regarding the “seventy shepherds” found in Enoch 89:59-90:13.

This passage comes as part of a larger one describing Enoch's second dream vision he has received. Enoch's symbolic vision is a foretelling of the entire salvation story involving the people of God from the Garden of Eden until the Messianic Age.

In 89:59-90:13, we have the part of the story describing the elect nation beginning with the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, and the end of the Jewish monarchy in the time of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The passage describes “seventy shepherds” who are then given rule over the elect nation portrayed as “sheep”. These shepherds, each in turn, proceed to hand over the sheep to the Gentile nations, each nation being portrayed as varieties of vicious, feral animals. The wild beasts of the field relentlessly persue, persecute, and kill the sheep.

These seventy shepherds apparently represent evil angels who do God’s bidding, but incur guilt by going beyond what they are instructed, see Enoch 90:21, 25. In the passage, our normal expectation of the protective nature of shepherds is turned upside down. These shepherds are destroyers, and they do not lead the sheep to pasture by streams of water, rather, they deliver them over into the hands of their enemies, the seventy Gentile nations, who are ruled over by seventy evil angels.

Enoch’s period of the seventy shepherds mirrors the same span of time as the four Gentile empires Daniel saw in his vision in Daniel 7.

The period of the seventy shepherds will end when Jesus the Jewish Messiah returns to earth and restores the kingdom which was lost to Israel in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

The Four Mutated Beasts of Daniel's Vision

In Daniel chapter 7, the prophet receives a dream-vision in which he witnesses four monstruous beasts rising from the Mediterranean Sea which represent the four Gentile empires which will exercise authority over Jesusalem and its people beginning from the time of Nebuchadnezzer until the Messianic kingdom. It is possible to understand the four empires in Daniel's vision as Gentile attempts at re-establishing the original, united rebellion against God which was put down at Babel.

In Enoch each nation has a feral animal as its emblem.

In Daniel each of the four empires is shown to be an aggregate of a variety of animal traits monstrously stitched together. Daniel leaves the fourth animal nondescript. The fourth animal will then be fully described by John in Revelation 13. In their essence, the four empires stand in opposition to the kingdom of Messiah Jesus which is being set up now and which ultimately will put an end to the united rebellions of the Gentiles and will fill the whole earth with the asserted Lordship of Christ Jesus!

“The Times of the Gentiles”

In the New Testament, Jesus made a prophecy that has caused a lot of difficulties for readers... “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,” (Luke 21:24). I conclude that if we define the “The Times of the Gentiles” as that period of time which begins with the end of the Jewish monarchy by the Baylonians, and ends with the restoration of that monarchy at the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ it clears up a lot. Isn't this inferred by the question asked by the Apostles on the Mount of Olives just before the ascension of Christ to the right hand of the Father? They asked, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Remember that this question was still on their lips despite three years of Jesus’ teaching, and after Jesus explaining the kingdom during forty days after his resurrection (Acts 1:3). Jesus never disabused the Apostles of the idea that one day the kingdom will indeed be restored to Israel.

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