The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

336 THE BOOK OF GIANTS
from modern Iraq and from Iranian Khuzistan, covered with texts in Judaeo-
Babylonian Aramaic and written in a square Hebrew alphabet, present a
sentence which interests us directly here. In no. 27, lines 9-10, of J. A.
Montgomery's edition {Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur, 1913, p. 212
and pi. XXV) the sorcerer, who is identified with Hermes (XOXsnX, line 5),
the messenger of the Creator of the heavens and of the earth, threatens the
demons, who are 'wicked enemies and powerful adversaries' {^W^'l
nna •'am^p^'yai, line 6), as follows: xnannKi xnTU Krm xin^'na
etc. (ed. Xnxra) nnxm •'nm )Xlbl^ nn l&aD^a'?! 'I am going to bring
down upon you the curse, the decree, and the ban which I brought down
upon Mount Hermon and upon the monster Leviathan and upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrha. In order to subdue devils do I come, and evil spirits ...'
The identical passage, with the exception of some variants, is found in no. 2
of the same collection, lines 6-7:1 xnannxi xmnii )xrm ]^Tb)3 xin^na
kTiT\ inT"? xmo ]ian''n ('which feir mrr'XT ed.) n2n\n>xT
•'crn m 'PDI ... nix XI'PTX nn (u^aDa"? ed.) i&3D''a'? '?iD''a xmas; DHO.
The curse of Leviathan and of the Sea ('by the spell of the Sea and by the
spell of the monster Leviathan': Xrin frir'7n XDrxai Xa** n XDBTXa
Montgomery 2, 3-4; 27, 8), and also that of Sodom and Gomorrha, have
a good Biblical ring about them; for the first-mentioned see Isa. 27: i;
Pss. 74: 13-14 and 104: 6-9, 25-6; Jer. 5: 22; Job 38: 8-11; on the towns of
the Pentapolis see Gen. 18-19; Deut. 29: 23; Isa. i: 9 and 13: 19; Jer.
49: 18 and 50: 40; Amos 4: 11. Through their beliefs the Babylonian Jews
were able to add extra-canonical details; thus the two Angels (Gen. 19: i)
who destroyed the two cities are called Gabriel and Michael by name in the
incantation text published by C. H. Gordon, Orientalia, x (1941), 349-50
(Iraq Museum no. 9736, lines 8-9): (ed. ]^'7TX) j^'j^X '?XD''ai "7X^31
nma» n\i> DHD nDisnx"? mxns ^^^^ n'ji&n px'pa (?)fnn pnx
'In the name of Gabriel and Michael: you are two angels whom Yahweh
Sebaoth sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha.'
The curse of Mount Hermon on the other hand has no Biblical parallel,
and in order to explain this allusion in full it is not sufficient just to refer
back to En. 6: 5 f. and 14:17 ff., as Montgomery has done (p. 126). It is in the
Chronicle of George Syncellus that the Greek text of this incantation is to
be found. The chronicler says it comes from the 'first Book of Enoch on the
» Montgomery, loc. cit., pp. 121-6 and pi. II; W. H. Rossell, A Handbook of Aramaic Magical
Texts, 1953, pp. 79-80, no. 4.