And the angels, the sons of the Heavens, saw and lusted
after them, and spake one to another, 'Come now, let us choose us wives
from among the
children
of men, and beget children.
Byron
tom. i. p. 369); and in 1821 Richard Laurence, LL.D., published a
translation "from the Ethiopic MS. in the Bodleian Library." This was
the first translation of the book as a whole.
The following extracts, which were evidently within Byron's recollection
when he planned _Heaven and Earth_, are taken from _The Book of Enoch_,
translated from Professor Dillman's Ethiopic Text, by R. H. Charles,
Oxford, 1892:--
"Chap. vi. [1. And it came to pass when the children of men had
multiplied in those days that beautiful and comely daughters were born
unto them. [2.
And the angels, the sons of the Heavens, saw and lusted
after them, and spake one to another, 'Come now, let us choose us wives
from among the
children
of men, and beget children.
' [3. And Semjaza,
who was the leader, spake unto them: I fear ye will not indeed agree to
do this deed.... [6. And they descended in the days of Jared on the
summit of Mount Hermon....
"Chap. viii. [i. And Azazel taught men to make swords, etc.