3 Enoch

Rabbi Ishmael said: When I ascended to the height to behold the vision of the chariot, I entered six palaces, one inside the other, and when I reached the door of the seventh palace I paused in prayer before the Holy One, blessed be he; I looked up and said: “Lord of the Universe, grant, I beseech you, that the merit of Aaron, son of Amram, lover of peace and pursuer of peace, who received on Mount Sinai the crown of priesthood in the presence of your glory, may avail for me now, so that Prince Qaṣpi’el, and the angels with him, may not prevail over me and cast me from heaven.” At once the Holy One, blessed be he, summoned to my aid his servant, the angel Meṭaṭron, Prince of the Divine Presence. [ . . . ]

R. Ishmael said: Then I questioned the angel Meṭaṭron, Prince of the Divine Presence. I said to him, “What is your name?” He answered, “I have seventy names, corresponding to the seventy nations of the world, and all of them are based on the name of the King of the kings of kings; however, my King calls me ‘Youth.’”

R. Ishmael said: I said to Meṭaṭron, “Why are you called by the name of your Creator with seventy names? You are greater than all the princes, more exalted than all the angels, more beloved than all the ministers, more honored than all the hosts, and elevated over all potentates in sovereignty, greatness, and glory; why, then, do they call you ‘Youth’ in the heavenly heights?” He answered, “Because I am Enoch, the son of Jared. When the generation of the Flood sinned and turned to evil deeds, and said to God, ‘Go away! We do not choose to learn your ways,’ the Holy One, blessed be he, took me from their midst to be a witness against them in the heavenly height to all who should come into the world, so that they should not say, ‘The Merciful One is cruel! Did all those multitudes of people sin? And even if they sinned, what sin did their wives, their sons, and their daughters commit? And what of their horses, their mules, their beasts, their cattle, and all the birds of the world which the Holy One destroyed with them in the waters of the Flood—what sin did they commit that they should have perished as well?’ Therefore the Holy One, blessed be he, brought me up in their lifetime, before their very eyes, to the heavenly height, to be a witness against them to future generations. And the Holy One, blessed be he, appointed me in the height as a prince and a ruler among the ministering angels.”