The Holy Scripture
Chapter XVII
Seven (are the) princes, the great, beautiful, revered, wonderful and honoured ones who are appointed over the seven heavens. And these are they: 4: D: MIKAEL, GABRIEL, SHATQIEL, MIKAEL and GABRIEL, SHATQIEL and SHACHAQIEL, BAKARIEL, BA- BARADIEL and SHACHAQIEL and BA- DARIEL, PACHRIEL. RAQIEL and SIDRIEL.
And every one of them is the prince of the host of (one) heaven. And each one of them is accompanied by 496,000 myriads of minis- tering angels.
MIKAEL, the great prince, is appointed over the seventh heaven, the highest one, which is in the ‘Araboth. (2) each one of them is accompanied by 496,000 myriads of ministering angels. The hosts of song-uttering angels are usually depicted as under the authority, not of the seven archangels—‘ princes of the host ’—but of the four princes of the army’ (ch. xxxv. 3), ‘the four presences’ (1 En. xxxix f., see on xviii. 4): MIKAEL, GABRIEL, ’URIEL (Nuriel) and RAPHAEL. The conception of the four presences is closely connected with that of the seven archangels. Each one of them is the prince of the host of one heaven. (3) Mikael... is appointed over the seventh heaven, Gabriel, the prince of the host, is appointed over the sixth heaven etc. The expression ‘princes of the hosts’ is used of Mikael and Gabriel in Alph. The term is probably derived from Josh. v. 14 (the captain of the host of the Lord”, “the prince of the host of yawn”) which is referred either to Metatron or to Mikael or to Gabriel (cf. Szuni, 53 b-d). 'The idea of the multitudes of angels as divided in hosts, distributed through the seven heavens underlies ch. xviii. 1 (cf. also ch. xiv. 1). The tendency of arranging the orders of the angels according to the system of the seven heavens appears already in the Pseudepigrapha, although the traditions are somewhat confused. Test. Levi, iii. assigns different classes of angels to each of the seven heavens (1st heaven: *' the spirits of the retributions for the vengeance ” 2nd heaven: ‘‘the hosts of the armies which are ordained for the day of judgement ” 3rd heaven: acc. to rec. 3 (BAP S) = 2nd heaven (a); 4th heaven: “thrones and dominions in which always they offer praise to God"; sth: “angels who bear answers (prayers) to the angels of the presence"; 6th: ‘‘the archangels who minister and make propitiation to the Lord”; 7th: “‘the Glory of God and the angels of the Presence” (BAS S).) See CHARLES, A and P, ad loc. Acc. to 2 En. iii-ix, to the first heaven are located the rulers of the stars and the angels set over the treasuries of ice, snow, clouds, etc., to the 4th the sun and moon and the angels over them together with “an armed host of angels praising God”, to the 5th the Grigori (Watchers), to the 6th ‘seven bands of angels. .who make the orders and learn the goings of the stars and the alteration of the moon and the revolution of the sun... (who are) appointed over seasons and years etc.’’, to the 7th “ fiery troops of great archangels etc.” In 3 Bar. the angels attending the sun, moon (and the stars GABRIEL, the prince of the host, is appointed over the sixth heaven which is in Makon. 3SHATAQIEL, prince of the host, is appointed over the fifth heaven which is in Ma'on.? SHAHAQI’EL, prince of the host, is appointed over the fourth heaven which is in Zebul. BADARIEL®, prince of the host, is appointed over the third heaven which is in Shehaqum. BARAKIEL®, prince of the host, is appointed over the second heaven which is in "the height of (Merom)’ Ragia. PAZRIEL®, prince of the host, is appointed over the first® heaven which is in Wilön, which is in Shamayim.
Under them is GALGALLIEL”, the prince who is appointed over the globe (galgal) of the sun, and with him are 96 great and honoured angels who move” the sun in Raqra. €
® Under them"? is ’OPHANNIEL, the prince who is set over the globe ('ophan) of the moon. And with him are 88" angels who move the globe of the moon 354 thousand parasangs every night at the time when the moon stands in the East at its turning point. And when is the moon sitting in the East at its turning point? Answer: in the fifteenth day of every month.
Under them is RAHATIEL, the prince who is appointed over the constellations. And he is accompanied by 72 great and honoured angels. And why is he called RAHATIEL? Because he makes the stars run (marhit) in their orbits and courses 339 thousand parasangs every night from the East to the West, and from the West to the East. For the Holy One, blessed be He, has made a tent for all of them, for the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars in which they travel at night from the West to the East.
Under them is KOKBIEL, the prince who is appointed over all the planets. And with him are 365,000 myriads of ministering angels, great and honoured ones who move!? the planets from city to city and from province to province in the Raga‘ of heavens.
And over them are SEVENTY-TWO PRINCES OF KINGDOMS on high corresponding to the 72 tongues of the world. And all of them are crowned with royal crowns and clad in royal garments and wrapped in royal cloaks. And all of them are riding on royal horses and they are holding royal sceptres in their hands. The conception of the ‘tent’ for the sun, etc., is usually referred to Ps. xix. 5 (and 7). (8) over them are seventy-two princes of kingdoms... lit. ‘above them etc.’ It is difficult to reconcile this vs. with the preceding. To whom docs ‘above them’ refer? To the 365,000 myriads of angels of vs. 7 or to the princes and angels of the heavenly bodies in general? No doubt, as the context now stands, the seventy-two princes of kingdoms are intended as princes over the angels who ‘move the planets, by analogy with the seventy-two assistant angels of vs. 6. This would seem to be additional, since the real counterpart of the assistant angels of vss. 4, 5, 6 are in vs. 7, the 365,000 myriads of angels. ‘The expression ‘above them is not appropriate in the sense which it is here made to denote, the right phrase would have been e.g. ‘over them are appointed’ (םDינוממ .(ועליהם The inception ‘above them’ rather presupposes an exposition of the order of angelic classes, proceeding from the lower to the higher ones, hence quite contrary to that of the present chapter. The fragment is more akin to the angelological section, chh. xix seqq., to which it may even originally have belonged, since the beginning of that section is missing in the present book. See note on ch. xix. 1. By the compiler of the present chapter the seventy-two princes of kingdoms are made the rulers over the planets. The conception of the princes of kingdoms as rulers of planets and constellations is frequently represented in later sources. Their appellation properly refers to their function as angelic leaders of the destinies of the nations, as representatives in heaven of the kingdoms on earth, As such their number is usually given as seventy (corresponding to the number of nations (tongues) of the world, enumerated Gen. x). The idea of heavenly guardians of the nations occurs in Dan. x. 20, 21, and is fully developed in Sir. xvii. 17, 1 En. Ixxxix. 59 seqq. (in the metaphor of the seventy shepherds), Targ. Yer. to Gen. xi. 7,8, TB. Yoma, 77 a, Sukka, 29a, Gen. R. Ixviii, xxvii, Ex. R. xxi, Lev. R. xxix, P. R. `El. xxiv. They plead the cause of their resp. nations before God, each suffers punishment with the nation under his protection, they form the celestial Beth Din etc. For this range of ideas see them when he is travelling in Raqia, royal servants are running with great glory and majesty 4: D: even as on earth they and before every one of them, when (princes) are travelling in travelling in Raqia, there are running chariot(s) with horsemen great armies, even as (the custom is) and great armies and in on earth, with chariot(s), in glory and glory and greatness with greatness, praise, song and honour. praise, song and honour.