And Enoch, [the] seventh from Adam, prophesied also as to these, saying, Behold, [the] Lord has come amidst his holy myriads,
Jude has been describing men who slipped into the Christian company unnoticed. Now he quotes Enoch, who spoke before the flood, and those old words raise three questions: why Enoch is called the seventh from Adam, who comes with the Lord, and how the prophecy reached Jude.
The words are not a general announcement of judgment. Jude says Enoch prophesied "about these" — the very men he has been describing.
The epistle is striking in this: it shows the decline of the church. False brothers came in unnoticed. Their character marked out the state of the professing church in the last days. They are the object of the Lord's judgment when He appears.
That gives the whole letter its shape. One writer traces the line from the opening warning to this closing scene:
Certain men have crept into the Christian profession (verse 4) — that is the start. Enoch's prophecy, that judgment will be executed on all (verses 14, 15), declares the finish.
Commentators differ on those four words. One takes them as plain identification, then explains how a prophecy from that far back reaches beyond its own day:
There is something unusual when it says, "Enoch, the seventh from Adam." People have made something of that because they do not understand it. But it is very simple. There was more than one Enoch. There was an Enoch before this one — an Enoch the son of Cain. We should not look for prophecy in a son of Cain... We can hardly doubt that Enoch prophesied about the people of his own day. Prophecy always takes its start from what is present... But the Spirit of God also reaches from the beginning right on to the end.
Another finds meaning in the number itself:
Enoch was number seven in the line of descent through Seth. Genesis 5 shows it plainly. But one might wonder why Jude should spend even four words drawing our attention to it. Seven is in Scripture the number of perfection and completeness... Ten patriarchs lived before the flood. It was fitting, then, that number seven should be the one in whom faith and the life of faith came out in its completeness.
Scripture names more than one future judgment, and only one fits a Lord who arrives with others. (Where the ESV says "holy ones", the writers quoted here say "saints".)
Now there are only two scenes named in Scripture to which this can refer. One is the judgment of the great white throne at the end of the world, and Scripture says nothing there about the saints being present. The other is the coming of Christ to take His earthly dominion. There, as we have already seen, the saints go out with Him as the armies of heaven, clothed in His likeness. They are His companions in executing judgment on His foes.
If the Lord arrives surrounded by His own, a question follows about how they got there.
A thoughtful listener might have asked, "How can so many saints come with the Lord?" The obvious answer would be that He must come for them before He can bring them with Him.
Enoch's own life pictured that answer:
Enoch was taken up to heaven so that he would not see death. He was carried away from the earth before the judgment of the flood. So he is a type of the church — a picture of the saints who will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. That happens before the man of sin appears and the great tribulation comes.
Many suggest Jude borrowed from an old Jewish book that carries Enoch's name. Comparing the two settles it:
The existing book of Enoch, translated into the Ethiopic language, may have had a Hebrew original, as it is a Jewish production... It was probably written after Jude gave the words of Enoch by divine inspiration. Jude's words (verses 14, 15) are divine truth, so the matching language in the Ethiopic is certainly false. For this fake book makes the Lord execute judgment on His saints. That goes directly against His own word in John 5:24.
One writer leaves open how Jude got the words:
We have no indication that it was passed down in any written form, and it was quite possible for the Holy Spirit to have given it again to Jude. I do not venture to say that this is how it happened; we really do not know. But we do know, however Jude got it, that it is divine.
Enoch's message grew out of his manner of life.
The man who walked with God was entrusted with a testimony... God is sure to reveal His mind to the man who values fellowship with Him, for He loves to share His thoughts with His own.
- Walk — Enoch walked with God, and that fellowship gave him God's message of coming judgment to pass on.
- Warning — Enoch spoke "about these": the men who slipped into the Christian company unnoticed, who face the Lord's judgment when He appears.
- Withdrawal — God took Enoch to heaven before the flood, a picture of saints caught up before the tribulation.
- With — the Lord returns with His holy ones, so He must first come for them.
- Warrant — the words do not come from a Jewish book that has the Lord judging His own saints. The Spirit gave them, and they carry God's authority.
to execute judgment against all; and to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness, which they have wrought ungodlily, and of all the hard [things] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Jude quotes a warning that Enoch spoke before the flood, and that day of judgment has still not come. The verse names what the Lord comes to do — and it lists words alongside deeds on the charge sheet.
This is the earliest prophecy the Bible records. God took Enoch out of the world before judgment fell on it.
To a Christian, the preservation of this prophecy has a moving interest. The passage adds, to a truth taught elsewhere, that Enoch prophesied it. So we have a testimony that even before the flood the man of God had already announced the judgment of the world he was leaving. He "walked with God," and God took him out of the world, as the church will one day be taken. "Known to God are all His works, from the beginning of the world." He fixes all His purposes beforehand. That stays true whatever His patience may be, and however He deals with man in long-suffering and righteousness before He carries those purposes out.
The verse puts two groups in view. The "all" who face judgment are not the ones who arrive with the Lord.
"Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to" — what does Scripture say? — to "execute judgment upon all." This is not the saints. The "all" are completely distinct from the saints. The saints had been caught up, and now come with Him who executes the judgment on all the sinners found in that day. "To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all" — to make it perfectly plain who are meant — all "that are ungodly among them."
required note on non-ESV wording
That order of events explains how believers can be with Him at the very moment judgment falls.
When the wickedness of man rises then to its full height, God will strike in judgment. The Lord Jesus, who once bore judgment for our sakes, is then to be its Executor, and that oldest of all prophecies given through the lips of a man will be fulfilled: "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all" (Jude 14, 15). Beforehand the saints will have been "changed" according to 1 Corinthians 15, and "caught up" according to 1 Thessalonians 4, so they are with Him in a glorified condition.
One word keeps returning in this verse. Each use covers a different part of a person's life.
He will execute judgment, bringing solemn conviction to all the ungodly. This word "ungodly" comes four times in verse 15. It marks first men's characters, second their conduct, third their motives, and fourth their words. In all of these things they choose to refuse any recognition of God, and yet they keep up a pretence of religion. What sheer terror it will be for them when their hypocrisy is unmasked!
Jude charges words as well as deeds. Kelly weighs which of the two does more harm.
Here it is plain that ungodly words are just as bad in their own way as ungodly deeds. Sometimes an ungodly word does more harm than an ungodly deed. For instance, an ungodly deed might be an act of unrighteousness in a man, but an ungodly word might be a slur on Christ. This is worse, especially if people accept it. People are quite ready to cry out against an ungodly deed. Even worldly men can judge ungodly deeds well enough. Yet the same people would be deceived by hard and ungodly words against the Lord and His grace and truth.
Jude charges these words as spoken against the Lord Himself. That charge reaches further than it looks.
We are told that one special thing the Lord is coming to judge is "all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him," Jude 15. There is no present ridicule of His saints that will not be counted as against Himself in that day.
Enoch spoke to the world before the flood. Jude applies the words to a narrower target.
It is important to notice the use the Spirit of God makes of Enoch's words in Jude. He does not apply them to the world, but to the professing Church. This short letter has for its theme the entry, growth, and judgment of evil in Christendom. "The ungodly amongst them" means wicked men amongst Christians. How many in our day, in pulpit and press, are saying "hard speeches against Him"!
Because the verdict is certain, believers can leave insults unanswered.
Hard speeches against the Christ of God must stir the righteous indignation of the true children of God. And yet to a very large extent they can afford to treat the authors of these hard speeches with silent contempt. They know that the time is soon coming when God will deal with all in judgment. For centuries He has kept silence and borne with long-suffering patience. All that time men have grown ever bolder in rebellion, heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. But at last every "hard speech" will receive its crushing answer, and every opposer will be silenced and condemned.
- Spoken first. The earliest recorded prophecy came from a man God took out of the world before judgment fell. God fixes His purposes long before He carries them out.
- Comes with. The saints come with the Lord, not among the "all" He judges. He caught them up first.
- Convicts fourfold. "Ungodly" appears four times over character, conduct, motives and words — the whole person, religious pretence and all.
- Counts words. Hard speeches stand beside ungodly deeds, and mockery aimed at His people is counted as spoken against Him.
- Closes the case. Jude aims the warning at Christendom itself. Mocked believers can stay silent now, because every hard speech will get its answer then.