Semyaza

Semyaza

Chief of the Fallen Watchers

1 Enoch 6:3–6

Semyaza, who was their leader, said to them: ‘I fear that you will not agree to do this deed, and I alone will pay the penalty for this great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and bind one another by mutual curses not to abandon this plan but to do this deed.’ Then they all swore together and bound one another by mutual curses. And they were in all two hundred.

— 1 Enoch 6:3–6

1 Enoch 7:1–2

And they took wives for themselves, and everyone chose for himself one each. And they began to go in to them and were promiscuous with them... And they became pregnant and bore great giants.

— 1 Enoch 7:1–2

Semyaza (also Shemihazah, Samyaza) is the leader of the Watchers — the two hundred angels who, according to 1 Enoch, swore a pact on Mount Hermon to descend to earth and take human wives. The name likely means “He sees the Name” or “My name has seen,” suggesting an angel who possessed knowledge of the divine name.

Unlike Azazel, whose sin was teaching forbidden knowledge, Semyaza’s transgression was desire itself. He led the angels across the boundary between heaven and earth, violating the created order. Their offspring, the Nephilim — giants of enormous size and appetite — ravaged the earth until God sent the Flood. Genesis 6:1–4 preserves a compressed echo of this tradition: “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.”

Semyaza’s story carries a particular poignancy. In some traditions, he recognized the gravity of what he was doing — he feared being left to bear the punishment alone, so he demanded the others bind themselves by oath. It is a portrait of sin committed not in ignorance but in full knowledge, with open eyes and a shared pact of mutual destruction. He chose the fall and took two hundred with him.

Further Reading