⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of Elohiym the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: ⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of wicked men.

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2 Kepha (Peter) 3:5-7 [Cepher]

DID you catch that? I finally latched on. It took me forty years and another dozen or so weeks to do so though. Why it has taken me so long to see the gap in Kepha may in fact be the result of a mid-life crisis and cause for another discussion entirely. Hopefully, I can speed up the process for you. I even pulled out the trusty highlighter so that you can see what I’m talking about. Kepha has just described the first world age. Perished. That is to say, he’s not referring to Noah’s flood. You will be quick to tell me that there was only one world destroying flood in the Bible, and if so, then you are wrong. “The world that then was” (which perished, mind you) is the same “earth standing out of the water and in the water.” He’s referring to the creation account as described in Genesis chapter one, wherein we read that the Earth was “without form and void.” On the first day of creation, Yahuah flipped a light switch on, and look…!

Water…! So much water…!

No stardust. No cosmic matter. Just water. Lots and lots of water. Sure, the Earth was there—somewhere. Formless and void though. Also, submerged. And the Ruach of Elohim was moving over the face of it. You’re probably familiar with that scene, but if not, let me refresh your memory. It goes like this.

¹ IN the beginning Elohiym created the heavens and the earth

² And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Ruach Elohiym moved upon the face of the waters.

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Genesis 1:1-2 [Cepher]

And now for another version. Same story though. Try not to fall out of your chair.

¹ At the beginning Yahuah created the heavens and the earth.

² And the earth was vacancy and desolation, solitary of the sons of men, and void of every animal; and darkness was upon the face of the abyss, and the Spirit of mercies from before the Lord breathed upon the face of the waters.

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Genesis 1:1-2 [Targum]

You’ll notice I highlighted more from the Targum. Rather than simply telling us the earth was formless, we are informed of its current state, which is to say, its complete emptiness or destruction. And even more-so, what it is now vacant of. The sons of men and every living animal. To enhance this mystery, the abyss shown to us for the last time in the book of Revelation makes its first appearance in the second sentence of Targum Genesis. Its inclusion here gives the vacant and desolate earth a pair of eyes which stares uneasily at the reader, as if to say, “Something happened.” Oh, something happened, alright. After all, Yahuah did not create the earth a waste place. Tell my why it is in shambles then.

For thus says Yahuah, who created the heavens. He is the Elohim who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place.

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Isaiah 45:18

You didn’t believe me when I told you Yahuah did not create the earth a waste place—did you? But there it is. Isaiah said it first and I simply borrowed from him. Well technically, Moshe is the first on record. The word that is used here is the very same which we have already seen in Genesis. Tohu. Without form. That would be Strong’s Concordance 8418, for all the fact-checkers out there. Or תֹּהוּ if you can read Hebrew. You pronounce it like this: tō-hū. Try it. Tō-hū. Again. Tō-hū. Practice makes perfect. Its definition reads:

Tohu (to’-hoo): formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness.

But that’s just how the world started—you tell me. Tohu. Setting the bar kind of low, are we? The prophet Ezra described Genesis 1:1 quite differently.

And I said, O Lord, thou spakest from the beginning of the creation, even the first day, and saidst thus; Let heaven and earth be made; and thy word was a perfect work and thy word was a perfect work.

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2 Esdras 6:38

See, Genesis 1:1 tells us that Elohim created heaven and earth, and yet, one more sentence into the story, the earth has already become an unreality. If we’re merging both verses into one singular event, then that’s not exactly a perfect work now—is it? To better understand these two separate events, Kepha may in fact give us a chronological order to lay our bread crumbs down upon. Follow along.

⁴ For Elohiym spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to She’ol, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be watched unto the judgment of anguish; ⁵ And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the wicked; ⁶ And turning the cities of Cedom and Amorah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live in wickedness;

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2 Peter 2: 4-6 [Cepher]

We are given three judgements to consider. First, the angels who sinned were cast into She’ol. Take a mental note of that. Then Noah was spared from the floodwaters. And lastly, Sodom and Gomorrah followed as an example for the present day wicked. We can thusly conclude that the judgement of the angels happened before the flood of Noah.

But wait. Are the Watchers being referred to here? Perhaps. Hard to tell, really. If I recall, the Watchers were buried in the hills and the valleys of the earth for seventy generations. Not exactly a description of She’ol, but what do I know? The best thing to do in situations like this is to turn to Enoch’s firsthand account and find out. The following context is Yahuah pronouncing judgement upon two specific Watchers, Aza’zel and Shemiy’aza. Actually, he’s pronouncing judgement upon all 200 Watchers, but we’ll get to that. First, we read of Aza’zel.

⁶ Again Yahuah said to Rapha’el, Bind Aza’zel hand and foot; cast him into darkness; and opening the desert which is in Duda’el, cast him in there. ⁷ Throw upon him hurled and pointed stones, covering him with darkness; ⁸ There shall he remain forever; cover his face, that he may not see the light. ⁹ And in the great day of judgement let him be cast into the fire.

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Enoch 10:6-9 [Cepher]

Not looking too good for Aza’zel. Probably shouldn’t have snatched up human women as his own and then fathered children with them. Enoch places his location of imprisonment at an opening in a place called Duda’el, which is described as a desert. I haven’t the faintest clue where Duda’el is, and the Intel-net isn’t talking. Duda’el actually has a Wiki page, but still its location is inconclusive. If they know where Duda’el is, then our Slave Masters are not spilling the beans. The thought however is that the entrance to Duda’el is located somewhere just to the east of Jerusalem, and that Duda’el is a region within She’ol. But the jury is still out on that one.

Unlike the other Watchers, Aza’zel is never released from his prison abode. Therefore, the location of Duda’el is uniquely solitary and completely separate from the others.

¹⁵ To Miyka’el likewise Yahuah said, Go and announce his crime to Sheiy’aza, and to the others who are with him, who have been associated with women, that they might be polluted with all their impurity. And when all their sons shall be slain, when they shall see the perdition of their beloved, bind them for seventy generations underneath the earth, even to the day of judgement, and of consummation, until the judgement, the effect of which will last forever, be completed. ¹⁶ Then shall they be taken away into the lowest depths of the fire in torments; and in confinement shall they be shut up forever.

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Enoch 10:15-16 [Cepher]

Sheiy’aza and his fellow 198 conspirators are pronounced two locations of judgement. The first is simply “underneath the earth,” whereas the second is “the lowest depths of the fire.” This is presumedly only after their impending release (on good behavior?) and recapture. It’s like I’ve always said, it’s so hard to reform anyone in prison these days.

Elsewhere, Kepha tells us that Yahusha Messiah preached unto the spirits in heaven. Remember, our Kepha timeline informs us that the angels were judged before the judgement of floodwater. We read:

¹⁸ For Mashiach also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to Elohiym, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Ruach: ¹⁹ By which also he went and preached unto the ruachoth in prison; ²⁰ Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of Elohiym waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

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1 Peter 3:18-20 [Cepher]

The ruachoth whom Yahusha visited simply means spirits, and does not necessarily denote angels, which should be written aggelos in Greek. The timeline fits though—don’t it? Conclusively, it is very much a possibility that 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 2 Peter 2:4-6 are referring to the same event, and that it is furthermore the same event as Enoch 10:15-16. Oh hell. Perhaps I am still having a mid-life crisis. You tell me.

EDIT: They are the same event. Jubilees confirms it to be so.

⁵ But Noah found grace before the eyes of Yahuah. ⁶ And against the angels whom he had sent upon the earth, he was exceedingly wroth, and he gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and he bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold they are bound in the midst of them and are kept separate.

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Jubilees 5:5-6

THE BATTLE may be lost, but the war is far from over. Another piece of evidence is to demonstrate that destroying the earth by way of floodwater was a favorite pastime of Elohim’s—until it wasn’t. You will recall that “the heavens and the earth, which are now,” are “reserved unto fire.” But it wasn’t always so. It is only after the deluge, by which Noah and his family survived, that Yahuah promised never to destroy the world again.

¹² And Elohiym said, This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: ¹⁵ And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

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Genesis 9:12-15 [Cepher]

Once again, the evidence is inconclusive, as I could tell you Yahuah has already destroyed the world with floodwater, perhaps on any number of occasions. But unless Scripture tells us so, then it is only speculation on my part.

THERE IS what just may prove to be yet another passage which speaks of the destruction concerning the first world age. That is, the earth between Genesis chapter one, verses one and two. The account is told to Methuselah by Enoch as having taken place years earlier, before he was even married to his mother, and proceeds as follows.

⁴ I was lying down in the house of my grandfather Malal’el, I saw in a vision heaven thrown down and removed. ⁵ And when it fell upon the earth, I saw likewise the earth absorbed by a great abyss; and mountains suspended over mountains. ⁶ Hills were sinking upon hills, lofty trees were gliding off from their trunks, and were in the act of being projected, and of sinking into the abyss.

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Enoch 83:4-6

Where else have we seen the abyss today? It’s okay if you don’t want to answer—even if you know. I’ll commit to both sides of the discussion for the remainder of this paper. The Targum. That’s where. Darkness was ominously present upon the face of the abyss during the first day of creation—and why is that, exactly? You will tell me Enoch speaks nothing of the earth being destroyed by water in this vision, making the two incompatible. And yet nowhere else do we see all of creation being overthrown, toppled, and sucked up into the abyss.

Enoch quickly takes his vision to Malal’el. His grandfather thusly interprets the sinking of all creation into the abyss as a future event. Enoch however is only giving us Malal’el’s interpretation, which seems oddly out of place, and in fact reminds me of Kepha’s misguided reaction to the animals on the sheet in Acts chapter 10. The vision was about unclean people, not making unclean animals edible. Even Malal’el seems to believe his interpretation is only a possible outcome when stating:

Now, my son, rise up; and bessech Yahuah of glory (for you are faithful0, that a remnant may be left upon earth, and that he would not wholly destroy it

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Enoch 83:10

We know this is not a future outcome for the earth, as Kepha has already told us the present cosmos are reserved for fire. So far as I can tell, the abyss always coincides with spiritual entities. You probably already know about the locusts coming out of the abyss in Revelation 9. We are told how they ended up there in Jubilees, when Yahuah commands a large number of ruachoth to be bound and thrown into “the place of condemnation.”

10¹ AND in the third week of this jubilee the unclean devils began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them. ² And the sons of Noah came to Noah their father, and they told him concerning the devils which were leading astray and blinding and slaying his sons’ sons.

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⁷ And Yahuah Elohaynu bade us to bind all. ⁸ And the chief of the ruachoth, Mastema, came and said: Yahuah, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them hearken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; fr if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for great is the wickedness of the sons of men ⁹ And he said: Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation. ¹⁰ And one of us he commanded that we should Noah all their medicines; for he knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness. ¹¹ And we did according to all his words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the earth.

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Jubilees 10: 1-2; 7-11

The place of condemnation is the same as the abyss. Are these the very ruachoth whom Yahusha Messiah visited in prison? The timing seems a bit off, but perhaps. If so, it then means that Yahusha was not ministering to the Watchers, and we are free to see Kepha as naming the angels being judged between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 again. No reason to beat a dead horse. We’re moving along.

I found another passage which fits the vision of Enoch 83:4-6 nicely. This one comes from Jeremiah, and it reads:

²³ I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void;
And the heavens, they had no light.
²⁴ I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled,
And all the hills moved back and forth.
²⁵ I beheld, and indeed there was no man,
And all the birds of the heavens had fled.
²⁶ I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were broken down
At the presence of Yahuah,
By His fierce anger.

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Jeremiah 4:23-30

Mm-hmm, we’re back on tō-hū again. There it is. Like Isaiah in 45:18, Jeremiah is purposely directing us back to Genesis 1:2, when “the earth was without form and void.” Notice how Jeremiah sees the whole earth in the state of tohu. Ezra has already told us that the earth was created perfect, but here can only be deemed formerly fruitful. There are cities, but they’re broken down, vacant of men. The chaotic condition and wreckage of the earth is a direct result of its previous tenants. You had to be there, I guess.

You will tell me this a future event. If so, the language is the same. And anyways, in Hebrew there are no coincidences. But what of the heavens having no light—you ask. Surely, heaven didn’t go dark. Have we already forgotten? “Darkness was upon the face…”

Oh, heaven went dark, alright.

When Yahusha revealed himself as the light of the world, and Yahuah parted the darkness from it, he may very well have been separating the wheat from the chaff as it relates to the angels of the first world age. But we’ll save that discussion for another time.

⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it? ⁶ Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of Elohiym shouted for joy?

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Job 38: 4-6 [Cepher]

Noel