Grown to manhood, Noah followed in the ways of his grandfather
Methuselah, while all other men of the time rose up against this pious
king. So far from observing his precepts, they pursued the evil
inclination of their hearts, and perpetrated all sorts of abominable
deeds.[8] Chiefly the fallen angels and their giant posterity caused
the depravity of mankind. The blood spilled by the giants cried unto
heaven from the ground, and the four archangels accused the fallen
angels and their sons before God, whereupon He gave the following
orders to them: Uriel was sent to Noah to announce to him that the
earth would be destroyed by a flood, and to teach him how to save his
own life. Raphael was told to put the fallen angel Azazel into chains,
cast him into a pit of sharp and pointed stones in the desert Dudael,
and cover him with darkness, and so was he to remain until the great
day of judgment, when he would be thrown into the fiery pit of hell,
and the earth would be healed of the corruption he had contrived upon
it. Gabriel was charged to proceed against the bastards and the
reprobates, the sons of the angels begotten with the daughters of men,
and plunge them into deadly conflicts with one another. Shemhazai's ilk
were handed over to Michael, who first caused them to witness the death
of their children in their bloody combat with each other, and then he
bound them and pinned them under the hills of the earth, where they
will remain for seventy generations, until the day of judgment, to be
carried thence to the fiery pit of hell.[9]
The fall of Azazel and Shemhazai came about in this way. When the
generation of the deluge began to practice idolatry, God was deeply
grieved. The two angels Shemhazai and Azazel arose, and said: "O Lord
of the world! It has happened, that which we foretold at the creation
of the world and of man, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of
him?'" And God said, "And what will become of the world now without
man?" Whereupon the angels: "We will occupy ourselves with it." Then
said God: "I am well aware of it, and I know that if you inhabit the
earth, the evil inclination will overpower you, and you will be more
iniquitous than ever men." The angels pleaded, "Grant us but permission
to dwell among men, and Thou shalt see how we will sanctify Thy Name."
God yielded to their wish, saying, "Descend and sojourn among men!"
When the angels came to earth, and beheld the daughters of men in all
their grace and beauty, they could not restrain their passion.
Shemhazai saw a maiden named Istehar, and he lost his heart to her. She
promised to surrender herself to him, if first he taught her the
Ineffable Name, by means of which he raised himself to heaven. He
assented to her condition. But once she knew it, she pronounced the
Name, and herself ascended to heaven, without fulfilling her promise to
the angel. God said, "Because she kept herself aloof from sin, we will
place her among the seven stars, that men may never forget her," and
she was put in the constellation of the Pleiades.
Shemhazai and Azazel, however, were not deterred from entering into
alliances with the daughters of men, and to the first two sons were
born. Azazel began to devise the finery and the ornaments by means of
which women allure men. Thereupon God sent Metatron to tell Shemhazai
that He had resolved to destroy the world and bring on a deluge. The
fallen angel began to weep and grieve over the fate of the world and
the fate of his two sons. If the world went under, what would they have
to eat, they who needed daily a thousand camels, a thousand horses, and
a thousand steers?
These two sons of Shemhazai, Hiwwa and Hiyya by name, dreamed dreams.
The one saw a great stone which covered the earth, and the earth was
marked all over with lines upon lines of writing. An angel came, and
with a knife obliterated all the lines, leaving but four letters upon
the stone. The other son saw a large pleasure grove planted with all
sorts of trees. But angels approached bearing axes, and they felled the
trees, sparing a single one with three of its branches.
When Hiwwa and Hiyya awoke, they repaired to their father, who
interpreted the dreams for them, saying, "God will bring a deluge, and
none will escape with his life, excepting only Noah and his sons." When
they heard this, the two began to cry and scream, but their father
consoled them: "Soft, soft! Do not grieve. As often as men cut or haul
stones, or launch vessels, they shall invoke your names, Hiwwa! Hiyya!"
This prophecy soothed them.
Shemhazai then did penance. He suspended himself between heaven and
earth, and in this position of a penitent sinner he hangs to this day.
But Azazel persisted obdurately in his sin of leading mankind astray by
means of sensual allurements. For this reason two he-goats were
sacrificed in the Temple on the Day of Atonement, the one for God, that
He pardon the sins of Israel, the other for Azazel, that he bear the
sins of Israel.[10]
Unlike Istehar, the pious maiden, Naamah, the lovely sister of
Tubal-cain, led the angels astray with her beauty, and from her union
with Shamdon sprang the devil Asmodeus.[11] She was as shameless as all
the other descendants of Cain, and as prone to bestial indulgences.
Cainite women and Cainite men alike were in the habit of walking abroad
naked, and they gave themselves up to every conceivable manner of lewd
practices. Of such were the women whose beauty and sensual charms
tempted the angels from the path of virtue. The angels, on the other
hand, no sooner had they rebelled against God and descended to earth
than they lost their transcendental qualities, and were invested with
sublunary bodies, so that a union with the daughters of men became
possible. The offspring of these alliances between the angels and the
Cainite women were the giants,[12] known for their strength and their
sinfulness; as their very name, the Emim, indicates, they inspired
fear. They have many other names. Sometimes they go by the name
Rephaim, because one glance at them made one's heart grow weak; or by
the name Gibborim, simply giants, because their size was so enormous
that their thigh measured eighteen ells; or by the name Zamzummim,
because they were great masters in war; or by the name Anakim, because
they touched the sun with their neck; or by the name Ivvim, because,
like the snake, they could judge of the qualities of the soil; or
finally, by the name Nephilim, because, bringing the world to its fall,
they themselves fell.[13]