Second City Standard · The Book of Enoch · Chapter 22
The Four Hollow Places of the Dead
Chapter 22 gives 1 Enoch's map of Sheol: a great mountain in the west with four hollow places where human souls wait — separated by righteousness, wrongdoing, and unavenged suffering — until the final judgment.
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Book of Enoch Chapter 22: Modern Reading
From there I went to another place, and Raphael showed me in the west a great and high mountain, and a hard rock, and four hollow places, deep and wide and very smooth. Three of them were dark and one was bright, and a fountain of water was in its midst.
I said, 'How smooth these hollow places are, and deep and dark to look at.' Then Raphael answered: 'These hollow places have been created for this purpose — that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble here, that all the souls of the children of humanity should be gathered here.'
'These places have been made to receive them until the day of their judgment, and until their appointed time — an appointed time which will be long — until the great judgment comes upon them.'
'One is separated for the spirits of the righteous, where the bright fountain of water is. Another is for the sinners who died and were not judged in their lives. Another is for those who lodge complaint — who make disclosure concerning their destruction, when they were slain in the days of the sinners. And another is for the spirits of those who were not righteous but were also not sinners, but joined themselves with the lawless — with those who suffered oppression.'
What Happens in Book of Enoch Chapter 22?
Chapter 22 gives 1 Enoch's map of Sheol: a great mountain in the west with four hollow places where human souls wait — separated by righteousness, wrongdoing, and unavenged suffering — until the final judgment.
What Does Chapter 22 Mean?
Chapter 22 is one of the most influential passages in ancient Jewish thought about the afterlife. It treats the dead as awake, sorted, and awaiting judgment — not extinguished at death, and not immediately finalized.
The place of those who cry out for justice becomes a template for the martyr voices in later apocalyptic literature.
Historical and Biblical Context
Revelation 6:9–10, where slain souls under the altar cry for judgment, echoes 1 Enoch 22 closely.
This 'compartmental Sheol' shaped intertestamental and early Christian ideas of intermediate states before final judgment.
Key Ideas
The dead are separated by cause.
Righteous, unjudged sinners, unavenged victims, and the compromised each have their own place.
Waiting is part of judgment.
The chapter treats the interval between death and final judgment as itself meaningful.
The complainants have a voice.
One hollow is defined by the outcry of those killed unjustly — their complaint is part of the record.
Questions Raised by the Chapter
Is this heaven and hell?
Not exactly. Chapter 22 is an intermediate map; the final destinies come after the great judgment.
Are all people accounted for?
The four categories are meant to cover the moral range of humanity, though some later texts subdivide further.