by Brian Godawa
“I am Enoch, a servant and prophet of Elohim, the living God, and I have come to pronounce judgment upon the Watchers and upon their progeny the Nephilim!”
The chamber held silence for a moment. Then Inanna howled with laughter, followed by a hundred other Watchers.
Anu and Enlil played along with this farce. It seemed absurdly amusing to them.
“Well, then, by all means, pronounce thy judgment, little man. We wait with baited breath,” said Anu.
Enoch looked straight at Anu. He raised his hand, pointing his finger at the Watcher. “Semjaza, you and your associates have united yourselves with women so as to defile yourselves in all your uncleanness!” Enoch called Semjaza out by his true name. “And when your unholy sons are slain, you will be bound fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of judgment.”
“My, oh my, we are quaking in our sandals,” mocked Inanna. “Fear and trembling has seized us! We beseech thee to draw up a petition for us that we might find forgiveness in the presence of the Lord of heaven.”
Enoch ignored the vitriolic mockery. He next prophesied directly to Inanna by true name. “Azazel, thou shalt have no peace. A severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds. And thou shalt not have toleration nor request granted to thee, because of the unrighteousness which thou hast taught, and because of all the works of godlessness and unrighteousness and sin which thou hast shown to men.”
Inanna muttered to Anu, “My humor is taxed. Let us be done with this pathetic gnat.”
“Wait,” Anu held up his hand.
As Enoch prophesied, the Watchers circled slowly around the lake, to enclose Enoch and his guardians. Anu had not been simply entertaining the absurd prophecy for the sake of amusement. He was stalling for time. But something in the human’s words sent a chill down Anu’s back, setting his teeth on edge. He wanted to hear the final words.
Enoch continued, “The decree has gone forth to bind you in the earth for all the days of the world. And you shall see the destruction of your beloved sons. For a Chosen Seed is coming to bring an end to the reign of the gods and bring rest from the curse of the land!”
That last line struck them all. In that moment, they knew Enoch was indeed a prophet of Elohim, and they had been cursed.
“Eliminate them, immediately!” commanded Anu.
• • • • •
Ohyah walked behind his four captives, Methuselah, Edna, Lamech, and Betenos. They held their hands behind their heads in submission. Ohyah even pushed Lamech, to look impatiently hostile. Lamech fell to his knees from the force.
“Hey, take it easy,” muttered Lamech. “You are enjoying this a bit too much for my comfort.” Ohyah smirked.
They were about half way across the vast clearing when the two Nephilim guards noticed the captive visitors. They trotted toward them to meet Ohyah’s arrival.
Methuselah whispered, “I will take the one on the left. Ohyah, take the right. They will not see it coming.”
Before they could carry out their plan, they stopped dead in their tracks. A line of Nephilim stepped from the foliage into the clearing. Methuselah turned and saw masses of other armed Nephilim appearing all around them. A horde of over one hundred Nephilim surrounded them. They had never imagined this horror happening.
• • • • •
Anu gave the command to eliminate Enoch and the angels on the shoreline of the cavernous Abyss.
Gabriel lifted his cloak and pulled out his trumpet. He raised it to his lips and blew. The mighty sound penetrated the diabolical cave and resounded right up to heaven itself.
The percussion of the horn’s note was supernatural. Its sound waves washed over the Watchers, felling many of them in its wake. An earthquake rattled the cave to its core.
A beam of intense burning fire cut through the rock ceiling above Enoch and the angels’ heads and enveloped them in its blinding light. But it did not consume their flesh. It was as if they stood in the midst of a flaming furnace and remained unsinged by the heat or flames.
It dumbfounded Anu and Inanna.
Before their eyes, Enoch and the four angels were translated up through the ceiling and into heaven. In an instant, they were gone, and the beam of blazing light followed them.
A shroud of darkness fell in the cavern. The drastic change from intense brightness to intense darkness temporarily blinded the Watchers. After a moment, their eyes adjusted. They looked to the throne for their commands from Anu and Inanna.
The two of them were shaken to the core.
Anu, who had never shown weakness as leader of this rebellion, for the first time was pale and sweating. Inanna stood speechless for her first time. Their behavior had been uncovered by Elohim and judgment was coming. Their time was cut short. They had to act on their plan or risk utter failure and imprisonment in Tartarus.
“Unleash the wolves of war,” commanded Anu.
Chapter 38
Methuselah’s team was not quite as blessed as Enoch’s.
The horde of Nephilim surrounded Ohyah and his “captives.” They stood fearfully awaiting their end at the hands of the horde. An officer adorned in golden armor stepped out from the horde. He approached Ohyah. He studied the captives, then looked back at Ohyah with suspicion. He thoughtfully considered the bulging pus-filled black and blue eye of Ohyah.
The Naphil leader spoke with a gravelly voice, “I am General Mahawai of Baalbek. Who are you, soldier?”
A general? thought Methuselah. What do they have out here, an army of Nephilim? How could that be?
“I am Ohyah, son of Semjaza,” blurted Ohyah.
Methuselah’s team tried to hold back their surprise at this revelation. Semjaza? Semjaza was the infamous leader of the Watchers, now known as the father sky god Anu.
What new trick is Ohyah attempting? thought Methuselah. Sure, it might protect them from immediate execution, but it only delayed their demise until the Nephilim got word from Semjaza. Still, any amount of time was helpful, if they could only devise an escape.
Thanks a lot, Ohyah, Lamech thought. You just added prolonged torture for us when they discover you lied. Well, at least he will suffer more for being a traitor.
Ohyah continued, “I am a lone voyager from the east. I found this regiment because I wanted to join your forces. These giant killers took us all by surprise.”
Mahawai glanced at the two Guards from the camp. They nodded slightly in approval. But it was not approval enough for Mahawai.
“These soldiers merely parrot what you told them earlier! How do I not know whether you brought these vermin on your tail? How is it that you alone survived the slaughter of thirteen of my soldiers? Why should I believe you?”
Ohyah felt his hands tremble. He became short of breath. He had no answer.
Then a voice came from out of the horde, “General Mahawai, I will vouch for this Naphil’s word.”
Everyone turned toward the voice. One of the soldiers stepped out from the crowded regiment. He came straight up to Mahawai. He saluted and stood at attention.
Mahawai looked at him expectantly.
“I am Hahyah, son of Semjaza. This Naphil is my twin brother.”
Methuselah felt a sickening pit open in his stomach. His whole world came crashing in on him. Everyone on the team glanced at each other with shock. Only Betenos kept staring at Ohyah.
This Hahyah did indeed look just like Ohyah, save for his warrior-shaved head.
The general’s next declaration caught them off guard. “We are done with our training exercise. Bring these captives back to Baalbek. Let Thamaq and Yahipan deal with them.”
Well, thought Methuselah, at last I will face the Rephaim who killed our parents and the rest of my city. Unfortunately, they will have the blade in their hands.
The distant sound of a war horn interrupted his stupefied thoughts. The Nephilim stood at attention. Mahawai peered to the south and said to himself, “That is the battle call of Inanna.” He
turned to his troops and yelled, “ALL SOLDIERS TO ARMS! DOUBLE TIME TO BAALBEK!”
• • • • •
Baalbek lay about ten leagues north of where Methuselah and his team were caught. All night long they marched through the Sirion mountain pass. Eventually, they entered a broad river basin called the Beqa Valley, just before the sun rose. They followed the Orontes River through a vast cedar forest to its springs in the heart of the city.
As they came up from the south, they passed a huge quarry used for the stone of the city. The morning quarry shift had not yet begun, leaving the stone pit empty. It struck Methuselah how large the stones seemed to be. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him in the moonlight, with the distance and his perception.
Yet when they reached the city gates, he realized that the size of the stones was not an optical illusion. They were huge beyond belief. Stones the size of four men tall, thirty cubits long and thousands of tons apiece. He had never seen hewn rock so large or so finely crafted with precision. How did they cut, transport, and position such mammoth stones? It was inconceivable to him.
Until they entered the city gates.
Baalbek was a city of giants, vast and thriving, alive with industry and labor. And all of its inhabitants were Nephilim — thousands of them. All around them, everywhere, humongous architectural edifices crafted from cyclopean blocks of stone rose tall, some of the buildings a hundred cubits or higher. The team of giant killers felt like fleas in a nest of wasps. The giants they saw going about their business towered six to ten cubits high, and most of them wore strange foreign looking armor or carried foreign looking weapons. Baalbek looked like a military occupation of invading forces.
They were paraded through the city streets toward the palace. The staggering implications of what they saw overwhelmed Methuselah, Edna, Lamech, and Betenos. It meant that everything they believed about the gigantomachy was a lie. The giants were not reduced to outlaws and wandering vagrants hunted by the gods, they were an organized civilization. The general Mahawai had submitted to the call of Inanna as if they were her own army. How could this be? The gods had outlawed the giants in the East, only to create a secret city and army of Nephilim in the West?
These and many other questions filled Methuselah’s head. He feared the answers. A deathly dread overcame him.
Lamech stumbled closer to Methuselah as they approached the steps of the palace. “Ohyah planned this all along. He betrayed us from the beginning,” he whispered.
Methuselah nodded his head. He glanced at Edna to make certain she was well. Both Edna and Betenos had barely kept up with the rigorous march. The rapid journey had exhausted them all. They could have fallen asleep standing up, were it not for the fact that they would have been executed had they done so.
Before the palace, they passed a series of giant chariots, four-wheeled war carts drawn by teams of horses. The giants did not usually use beasts of burden, except in royal processions or in a military capacity for their leaders. This gathering obviously included a dozen different chariots from a dozen different tribes.
Baalbek was not the only city and army of giants? How much worse could these revelations possibly get? How much more shocking? thought Methuselah.
Chapter 39
The giant killers were ushered through the gigantic halls of the palace by a squad of six Nephilim warriors. Edna marveled at the intricate sculpting of marble and granite on the architecture. These monsters were evil, but they were still capable of creating such impressive beauty. It could only mean that artistic creativity and cultural sophistication were not in themselves signs of moral goodness. The cruelest, most monstrous beast could torture and eat a man, and yet turn aside and carve magnificent masterpieces of sublime beauty worthy of gods.
Betenos wanted to hold Lamech’s hand. But she knew better. It was bad enough to be a woman captive. The heinous treatment she would soon receive was bad enough. But if their captors knew affection bound any of the giant killer team together, it would provide their torturers more vulnerabilities to exploit, when they got around to carrying out their duty. If Ohyah revealed their relationship, all attempts at hiding the connection would be futile.
Lamech and Methuselah sized up everything as they trod the halls to their destination. The thought of escape might be laughable, but a warrior never stops looking for ways to fight. Whatever they could learn of the palace layout or the cultural behaviors of their captors might come in handy in an emergency.
Methuselah watched one of those cultural behaviors in action as they were escorted through the hallway: Nephilim were slaves to their insatiable lusts. They had voracious appetites for food, drink, sex and danger of any kind that gave them a thrill. The Nephilim guards kept sneaking glances at Edna and Betenos. Methuselah knew exactly what they were thinking.
On the one hand, he could certainly understand why. His wife was still the most covetable woman in any company. She walked with that sexy sway of hips that still drove him crazy after all these years.
Betenos was no less attractive. Though Lamech had sought to emulate his pious grandfather Enoch in spirituality, he could not avoid his good taste in beauty. Like patriarch, like son.
While Methuselah worried about Betenos’ future, he knew Edna was very capable of using her seductive talents to her own advantage. It may even be she who will get us out of this impossible situation, he thought. They would take her to a solitary room. She would play them, incite their mind clouding lusts, and then slit their throats before they knew what happened. Ah, it was God’s greatest blessing to be married to a godly warrior vixen.
They arrived at a set of huge oak doors that opened to a feast banquet for giants. The vast dining hall had floor tables in a U-shape overflowing with every kind of fish, fowl and mammal imaginable: roasted boar, gazelle, lion, bull, and bear, as well as whale shark and coelacanth. The one animal kind Methuselah noticed as absent was reptile. No snakes, crocodiles, lizards or dragons.
That would be too much like eating their own, he thought.
It was a feast of flesh fit for kings, because that is who sat at the table before them; kings — giant kings. They were the Rephaim who were first birthed when the gods came down from heaven. Eleven of them sat on the floor in their eating positions. One tossed a lion’s bone to two mushussu chained in the corner. They were the same type of chimera dragon monsters that had almost killed Methuselah’s team near Mari, at the beginning of their journey. The beasts snarled and fought over the bone. It was not an encouraging sight.
Thamaq and Yahipan presided at the center table, the evident rulers of this city. They looked up from their revelry to see Methuselah and his team standing in chains before them.
Their eyes met. Time stood still. The enemies recognized each other. Blood rose up simultaneously in Methuselah, Edna and Yahipan. Hatred resurrected and gripped all their souls.
Yahipan stood and started to limp briskly around the table toward the captives, the look of murder in his eyes.
“Yahipan!” shouted Thamaq.
Yahipan stopped.
“There will be plenty of room for revenge later.”
Yahipan limped back to his spot and plopped down in anger.
Methuselah thought, Good. He has carried that wound I gave him for hundreds of years as a miserable reminder.
Edna’s thought completed his, That is a foretaste of the misery I am going to give you if Elohim gives me one chance.
“Methuselah ben Enoch and his band of mighty giant slayers,” said Thamaq, with biting sarcasm. “Welcome to my marzih feast of the First Born.”
A marzih was a banquet that Rephaim indulged in the presence of the gods to celebrate life or death or a military send off. But no gods were present at this marzih.
The other Rephaim now stared at Methuselah’s team. They were the first of the offspring of the Watchers. The mightiest, the rulers of royalty, and they were all supposed to have been executed after the Gigantomachy hundreds of years ago.
&
nbsp; These Rephaim all measured about ten cubits tall and wore robes of kingship that expressed primacy and power. Each sported a different design, based on the different tribes or cultures they represented. Some outfits were studded with precious gemstones, others with silver and gold. All of the Rephaim were hairless and carried the tattooed skin of the Nephilim, strange occultic marks and spells burned into their leathery bodies as a magic oath of fealty to their gods. Their eyes bore the strongest resemblance of any of the Nephilim to their reptilian creators. They were stronger, faster, more cunning, and more spiritual than those who followed them.
“Forgive my lack of etiquette,” said Thamaq. “Let me introduce you to the Council of the Didanu, who will soon rule over the wretched little lives of your descendants.”
So they were organized into some kind of multi-kingdom empire. But who was the emperor?
Thamaq gestured to each one as he gave their names. “Ulkan, Taruman, Sidan-and-Radan the conjoined twins, Thar the eternal one.” Methuselah did not hear the rest of the names. He kept his eyes focused on Thamaq and Yahipan, like a leonine predator waiting for the moment to strike.
Yahipan felt it.
Even though Methuselah stood in chains, and the kings were surrounded by the mightiest of the Rephaim in a city of giants, still he felt it — as if he was in danger. Ridiculous, thought Yahipan. I am manifesting weakness, he concluded and shook it off.
Methuselah and Lamech did not know why this Rapha even bothered to treat them as if they had information to exchange.
Thamaq was playfully ironic. “As you no doubt have seen through your tour of our good city, we have been busy. Apparently, so have you, I see. Learning the way of the Karabu.”
Silence filled the room. Everyone on the team thought, How did he know?
The other Rephaim sat intensely quiet, anticipating the answer Methuselah might give. Genuine fear filled their eyes, as if Methuselah’s little gang knew something that would crush them. But what could it be that would scare them so?
Thamaq dropped his levity and turned deadly serious. “Where did you learn the way of the Karabu?”