“... Pace Davies, however, 4Q184 is not one of these texts. Far from a sectarian reuse of lan- guage borrowed from Proverbs, 4Q184 1 is work of extremely careful interpretation that attempts to reconcile divergent ideologies found in two apparently authoritative texts: Proverbs 1–9 and Isaiah, especially chapter 59. The interpreter harmonized these texts, both the connections and the differences, to form a single character. This interpretation answers a question that looms large in many central sectarian texts—why the righteous sin—in the form of a character found in many sectarian texts, a demon. What makes 4Q184 so important is not only the answer itself, the character, but how it gets formed through the harmonization of ideologically contradictory scriptural texts. [...] While the terms in 4Q184 undoubtedly allude to the slippery-tongued character in Prov- erbs, the body parts also appear to reflect Isa 59, adding to the character deceit, defilement, and legs moving to commit evil. ...”