And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam,.... This was Enoch the son of Jared; his name signifies one "instructed", or "trained up"; as he doubtless was by his father, in the true religion, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and was one that had much communion with God; he walked with him, and was translated by him, body and soul, to heaven, and did not see death; Ge 5:18; he is said to be "the seventh from Adam"; not the seventh man from him that was born into the world, for there were no doubt thousands born before him; but he was, as the Jews express it , yeybv rwd, "the seventh generation" from him; and they have an observation , that all sevenths are always beloved by God; the seventh in lands, and the seventh in generations; Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, as it is written, Ge 5:24; and this is said partly to distinguish him from others of the same name, and particularly from Enoch the son of Cain, the third: from Adam in his line, as this was the seventh from Adam in the line of Seth; and partly to observe the antiquity of the following prophecy of his: for it is said, heprophesied of these; of these false teachers, and such as they; what would be their sad state and condition at the second coming of Christ to judgment: that he had a spirit of prophecy is evident from the name he gave to his son Methuselah, which signifies, "when he dies is the emission", or the sending out of the waters of the flood, which came to pass the very year he did die.
The Arabic writers call him Edris the prophet; and the Jews say , that he was in a higher degree than Moses or Elias; they also call him Metatron, the great scribe, a name which they sometimes give to the angel that went before the children of Israel in the wilderness, and which seems to belong to the Messiah: that Enoch wrote a prophecy, and left it behind him in writing, does not appear from hence, or elsewhere; the Jews, in some of their writings, do cite and make mention of the book of Enoch; and there is a fragment now which bears his name, but is a spurious piece, and has nothing like this prophecy in it; wherefore Jude took this not from a book called the "Apocalypse of Enoch", but from tradition; this prophecy being handed down from age to age; and was in full credit with the Jews, and therefore the apostle very appropriately produces it; or rather he had it by divine inspiration, and is as follows:saying, behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints; by the "Lord" is meant the Lord Jesus Christ, who is ordained the Judge of quick and dead, and for which he is richly qualified, being omniscient and omnipotent, and faithful and righteous, and who will certainly come again to judge the world in righteousness; for not of his first coming, which was not to judge and condemn, but to seek and save, but of his second coming at the last day is this to be understood; and this is expressed in the present tense, "cometh", in the manner of the prophets, who speak of things future as if they already were, as Isaiah does of the incarnation, sufferings, and death of Christ, and to awaken the attention of persons to it, as if it was near at hand, as also to signify the certainty of it: and when he comes, he will be attended "with ten thousand of his saints": meaning either the souls of glorified saints, even all of them, 1Th 3:13, which will come with Christ, and meet the living ones, and be reunited to their own bodies, which will then be raised; or else the holy angels, as in De 33:2; and so some copies and the Arabic version read; which will be both for the showing forth of his glory and majesty, and for service in gathering his elect together, as well as for terror to the wicked; and a "behold" is prefixed to all this, to denote the certainty of Christ's coming, and the importance and wonderfulness of it: the ends of his coming follow.
Juchasin, fol. 5. 2. Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 5. 1. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 29. fol. 170. 1. Elmacinus, p. 10. apud Hottinger. Smegma Orient. p. 240. Shalshelet Hakabala, fol. 1, 2. Targum Jon.
in Gen. v. 24. Tosephot in T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 16. 2. Juchasin, fol. 5.