Fragment 1

1 [From her mouth] she brings out emptiness, and in […] worthlessness. She seeks errors always, [and with her tongue] she sharpens her words. [With mockery] 2 and scorn she speaks smoothly, to deride altogether with lips of iniquity. Her heart sets up recklessness, and her inward parts are snares [of the pit. Her palms] 3 are defiled with iniquity;⁠ her hands grasp the pit. Her feet go down to do wickedness and to walk in guilt […] 4 foundations of darkness; a multitude of transgressions is in her skirts. … the gloom of night, and her clothing […] 5 Her coverings are the deep darkness of twilight, and her ornaments are plagues of the pit. Her couches, her beds, are beds of Sheol⁠ […] 6 depths of the pit. Her lodgings are couches of darkness, and in the dead of night are her dominions. From the foundations of deep darkness 7 she pitches her dwelling, and she resides in the tents of silence, in the midst of everlasting burnings.⁠ She has no inheritance among all⁠ 8 the lights of brightness.⁠ She is the beginning of all the ways of iniquity. Woe, disaster to all who inherit her, and ruin to all 9 who hold on to her. For her ways are ways of death,⁠ and her paths are tracks of sin. Her trails lead astray 10 into iniquity, and her pathways are the guilt of transgression. Her gates are gates of death; at the entrance of her house she strides. To Sheol 11 all [who go in to her shall not] return, and all who inherit her will go down to the pit. She lies in wait in hidden places … […] 12 all […] In the city squares she veils herself, and in the gates of towns she takes her stand, and there is no one to stop her 13 from … always. Her eyes dart here and there, and she lifts her eyelids wantonly to look at a 14 righteous man and overtake him, and at a mighty man and make him stumble;⁠ to turn the upright from the way, and the righteous chosen ones 15 from keeping the commandment; to make fools of those who are steadfast … with wantonness, and to make those who walk uprightly change the statute; to make 16 the humble rebel against God, and to turn their steps from the ways of righteousness; to bring insolence into their heart, so that they do not tread 17 in the paths of uprightness; to lead a person astray into the ways of the pit, and to seduce with smooth words [all] the sons of man.

Texts in conversation

Compare Proverbs 4:12 and 4Q184 1:14

Hebrew Bible · Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction

Summary

Proverbs promises that wisdom will keep its students from stumbling. In 4Q184 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the wicked woman makes even righteous people stumble, challenging the promise that wisdom protects them from evil.

Passages

Proverbs 4:12

Hebrew Bible

10 Listen, my child, and accept my words so that the years of your life will be many. 11 I hereby guide you in the way of wisdom, and I lead you in upright paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered, and when you run, you will not stumble. 13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; protect it, because it is your life.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Proverbs

4Q184 1:14

Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction · The Seductress

13 from … always. Her eyes dart here and there, and she lifts her eyelids wantonly to look at a 14 righteous man and overtake him, and at a mighty man and make him stumble; to turn the upright from the way, and the righteous chosen ones 15 from keeping the commandment; to make fools of those who are steadfast … with wantonness, and to make those who walk uprightly change the statute; to make 16 the humble rebel against God, and to turn their steps from the ways of righteousness; to bring insolence into their heart, so that they do not tread 17 in the paths of uprightness; to lead a person astray into the ways of the pit, and to seduce with smooth words [all] the sons of man.

100–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q184

References

“... 4Q184 takes phrases out of Proverbs that assure protection against the evil woman through righteousness and contradicts them. If you “walk in paths of righteousness…you will not stumble”; she overtakes him to “make him stumble,” so he “does not walk…in the tracks of uprightness.” Also, if you “keep your father’s commands,” you will be pro- tected from “an evil woman,” from a “smooth tongue”; here she stops him “from keeping the command” with her “smooth words” and her “eyelashes”. Again, the important difference is the identity of the victims. If they were all unwitting boys, there would be nothing amiss about this description. But the characters here are all exactly those who, by the standards of Proverbs have succeeded, and should be inviolable. But they are not. There is nothing in Proverbs that explains such a change. To take up Proverbs so clearly and then blatantly contradict it, to show that wisdom is not as powerful as wickedness is a bold move that requires explanation, if it is not simply an authorial invention . ...”

Michael J. Lesley, “Exegetical Wiles: 4Q184 as Scriptural Interpretation,” in The Scrolls and Biblical Traditions: Proceedings of the Seventh Meeting of the IOQS in Helsinki, ed. George J. Brooke, Daniel K. Falk, Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, and Molly M. Zahn (Leiden: Brill, 2012), MS 12.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Fragment 1

4Q1846 chapters

Compare Proverbs 4:12 and 4Q184 1:14

Summary

Passages

Proverbs 4:12

4Q184 1:14

References

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