This post is the continuation and climax of P3: Redemption (see also P1: The Controversy and P2: Death).
The verb לקח, to take, is commonly used in scripture to speak of redemption. It is used, for example, to speak of Israel’s redemption from slavery.
But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today.
Deuteronomy 4:20, NASB
Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.’Exodus 6:6-7, NASB
So also, לקח, to take, described redemption from slavery and exile in Babylon. In Ezekiel, YHWH tells the prophet to take
a stick and unite it with another as a symbolic sign of the fact that YHWH will take
the sons of Israel in his hand, redeem them from their exile, and re-establish them in their land.
Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand. . . . And say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.
Ezekiel 37:19, 21, NASB
In the story of the coming of the messenger of YHWH to Manoah and his woman, which we already discussed, after the messenger ascends, Manoah fears for his life, thinking they will die because they saw God (Judges 13:22). Using the verb לקח, to take, Manoah’s woman reassures him that their lives have been redeemed from that consequence.
But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, . . .
Judges 13:23a, NASB
God’s taking
of the offerings is paralleled with, but contrasted to God’s taking of their lives. Because of the one, so not the other.
One quite possible interpretation of Gen 5:24 in line with this understanding of the verb is that Enoch was in the presence of God and brought the word and ways of God (walked around with Elohim
) to a humanity whose heart was constantly evil (Gen 6:5), but then disappeared from among them (was not there
) because God redeemed him from being killed by those who hated his instructions and/or warnings (Jude 1:14-15) through the process of translating
or bringing him out of their midst to a safer geographic region (Elohim took him
). In this case, the scripture would not be communicating anything to us about Enoch dying or not dying (although he would eventually die by natural causes or the coming of the flood). Rather, it would be communicating the faithfulness of God to redeem those who walk with him. And thus Enoch stands in contrast to those around him not because he didn’t die, but because he truly lived.
Sometimes the verb is used not only in terms of redemption, but also in terms of death. One example is the taking
of animals for immolation. The death of the animal serves to redeem the people from their sin, guilt, profanity, or uncleanliness:
Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them to minister as priests to Me: take one young bull and two rams without blemish.
Exodus 29:1, NASB
In Isaiah, the taking,
or death, of the righteous is said to redeem others from their transgressions.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?
Isaiah 53:8, NASB
Perhaps the most striking use of לקח, to take, in the scriptures, is the one which has a meaning of redemption from Sheol or death. Two passages of scripture are vivid in this regard, Psalm 18 and 49.
Psalm 18 (along with its almost identical companion piece in 2 Samuel 22), is a military victory hymn. A scribal gloss attributes the psalm to King David (v. 1). It begins with an introduction (vv. 2-3) giving praise to YHWH and introducing us to the reason for this praise: God’s deliverance from the destruction of one’s enemies. In metaphoric and mythological language, it then proceeds to describe a dire situation where all hope seems lost (vv. 4-5), a cry to God for deliverance (v. 6), and the coming of God to overthrow the speaker’s enemies and deliver him/her from certain death (vv. 7-19). The rest of the psalm speaks of the ways of God and how this related to the ways of the speaker (vv. 20-30), elaborates on how God enabled the speaker to conquer his/her enemies in this and many other military victories (vv. 31-45), and concludes with praise (vv. 46-50).
The most relevant portion of this psalm for our discussion is vv. 1-19. Therein, the speaker metaphorically describes their crisis as being pulled down into the depths of Sheol and trapped by death, at which point he/she cried out to God:
The cords of death encompassed me, And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.
Psalm 18:4-7, NASB (see also 2 Samuel 22:5-7)
The speaker then metaphorically describes their redemption from military defeat and death by saying God opened up the depths of the earth from within which the speaker had become mired and took
the speaker out of Sheol (the imagery of water is used here as in other places–like Jonah 2–to describe death in Sheol).
Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare At Thy rebuke, O LORD, At the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils. He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.
Psalm 15-16, NASB (see also 2 Samuel 22:16-17)
The context in which the verb לקח, to take, occurs in this psalm is within the midst of resurrection imagery—being brought back to the land of the living from the land of the dead. Why did God redeem the speaker from Sheol? One reason was because the speaker followed in the ways of God (vv. 20-24), which neatly fits the meaning of our phrase walked around with Elohim.
Another is because God delighted in
him (end of v. 19). The major difference between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint of Gen 5:24 is that the Septuagint (possibly also its Vorlage) says Enoch was well pleasing to God,
which is echoed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Philo, and Sirach. So we even have parallels to this psalm’s imagery in the additional language from the Greek version and other writings referring to Gen 5:24.
Whereas redemption from death and Sheol in Psalm 18 occurred in metaphoric terms to ultimately express something different, Psalm 49 uses the same poetic language to express what seems to be a very real and literal hope—that YHWH will take
or redeem the speaker from Sheol by raising him/her from the dead.
Psalm 49 is a wisdom psalm concerned with death and what can and can’t deliver one from it. It contains an introduction (vv. 1-4) and three divisions (5-13, 14-15, and 16-20). The psalm’s main point seems to be to speak to the weak, indigent, and/or powerless in order to assure them in the midst of their suffering or oppression that even those with power, wealth, and status—perhaps the very ones bringing that suffering and oppression upon them—are ultimately powerless and without wealth or possessions to help them in the day of destruction. Death comes to all humanity and the most powerful person will not redeem themselves from it any more than the most feeble. The key difference, however, is that those with power and wealth mistakenly put their trust in that to redeem them from death, whereas the speaker puts their hope and trust in YHWH whom, it is assumed, will do so. The second division is the most pertinent for our discussion:
As sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; And the upright shall rule over them in the morning; And their form shall be for Sheol to consume, So that they have no habitation. But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; For He will receive me. Selah.
Psalm 49:14-15, NASB
Although the translation does not make this evident, the word used here at the end to describe the thing that God is doing by redeeming someone from the grave is לקח, to take. We are once again in contact with resurrection imagery. The powerful and wealthy who ruled over others will die and descend into Sheol, never to arise again. Unlike them, however, there is a morning at which point the upright will be taken
from Sheol and redeemed from the end that is common to all. They will then rule in the stead of those who perished trusting in their wealth, status, or power.
This is the meaning that I believe makes the best sense of the description of Elohim taking
Enoch. Enoch existed in the presence of God, followed in his way, and probably, in doing so, served as a witness to others about that way (And Enoch walked around with Elohim
). Then Enoch died (and was not there
). But because God was pleased with him (Greek version), God redeemed him from death by giving life back to him and transferring or translating him to another place (Elohim took him.
). Thus, what made Enoch different than the others around him at the end was not that he didn’t die, but that after he died, God rewarded his righteousness with redemption from death, whereas everyone else, due to their wickedness, simply died and that was the end of it. This explains, therefore, the purpose behind concluding each branch of the genealogical list with a notice of death and also why Enoch’s ending differed. Genesis 5:24 can be retranslated in the following way to reflect this conclusion:
And Enoch walked around with Elohim and ceased to exist; surely Elohim took him.
Gen 5:24
A freer translation would look like this:
Now Enoch walked with God, but ceased to exist. Surely God redeemed him.
Gen 5:24
Where did Enoch go when God took him from death? Your guess may be as good as mine. There is an interesting response to this question in a writing from Irenaeus that may be of interest. It was supposedly passed down from the Apostles to their disciples, but the truth of it is hard to ascertain.
Where, then, was the first man placed? In paradise certainly, as the Scripture declares
And God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed.And then afterwards when [man] proved disobedient, he was cast out thence into this world. Wherefore also the elders who were disciples of the apostles tell us that those who were translated were transferred to that place (for paradise has been prepared for righteous men, such as have the Spirit; in which place also Paul the apostle, when he was caught up, heard words which are unspeakable as regards us in our present condition), and that there shall they who have been translated remain until the consummation, as a prelude to immortality.Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5:5
This analysis is concluded in P5: Hebrews.