Enoch 18:14

Enoch 18:14
	;
Album	The Life of the World to Come
Released	2009
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:53

Enoch 18:14 is a bonus track from the album The Life of the World to Come. It is bundled with the album when purchased from iTunes.

Bible Verse[]

The angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. ^{Richard Laurence Translation}

Lyrics[]

I saw some old friends as I came to the city gate
They asked me where I'd been of late
I hadn't been anywhere but what was I going to say
Two hopeful people looking at me that way
You and your brother
You both escaped the curse
You can't comprehend what it's like

We stood in the sunlight and they asked me where I'd been
Held the gate open, told me to come on in
I saw the damp green grass so nice on the other side
Couldn't explain myself to them but I tried
You and your brother
You both escaped the curse
So you can't comprehend what it's like

Ground was dry but giving, the sky was nearly black
Saw some old friends when I looked back
Remember my old home, haven't forgotten yet
What happens on the day when I forget
You and your brother
You both escaped the curse
So you can't comprehend what it's like

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"This is named after a book that is sorta, it's bonus track from the Bible, it didn't actually make the final cut." - Life of the World to Come DVD
"The chorus from this song is taken verbatim from a cut scene in the video game Odin Sphere (Atlus, 2007). In context, it's a rebuke, but underneath the anger I hear a sort of lament, and that's where the song picks up on the thread. Three dead people make up the stark landscape of the lyric; one of them is a wondering exile who's been cursed, and the other two are his friends. It's no fun carrying a curse around like a weighted ankle bracelet, even if it does make your ankle look pretty. What would happen if you could shake the curse for just an hour, and maybe walk barefoot through the grass without that hard metal tearing up the turf beneath you? What if you could be free for that one out? What if you could just forget all about the curse? But of course the question is purely academic. You can't." -- 7/29/2009 - The Life of the World to Come: a film by Rian Johnson, liner notes
"...Then there'll be these cut scenes, these very long cut scenes with these story arcs, that again, I -- I know there's people who follow them really well and can repeat them, but to me they seem like they're coming from somebody else's family story, you know. Like if you meet somebody and they go 'God, you know how my mom is?' and you go, no, we haven't met. And it's like that, right, and at one point a very well-dressed person with silvery purple hair says the chorus of this song, says to two people who are just sort of standing there: 'You and your brother, you escaped the curse. You can't understand what it's like.' And I thought, oh, man, I relate to that on a very basic human level, right [laughs]. So I wrote this song." -- 2021-09-23 - The Queen - Wilmington, DE

Things Referenced in this Song[]

The chorus is dialogue from the Vanillaware game Odin Sphere.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

The Life of the World to Come

Track list: "1 Samuel 15:23" • "Psalms 40:2" • "Genesis 3:23" • "Philippians 3:20-21" • "Hebrews 11:40" • "Genesis 30:3" • "Romans 10:9 " • "1 John 4:16" • "Matthew 25:21" • "Deuteronomy 2:10" • "Isaiah 45:23" • "Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace"
Bonus tracks: "Enoch 18:14" • "Proverbs 6:27"
The Life of the World in Flux: "Daniel 12:8 (third)" • "Matthew 11:14-19"